In which I dust off the typing hands and attempt my to integrate!
I recently discovered to my great surprise that I am technophobic.
I'm not a Luddite by any means, nor am I particularly technologically illiterate. I possess some meagre knowledge of computing, bolstered when necessary by search-engines and forums and I can even find my way around IRC without accidentally burning too many bridges. But for some reason, mention anything relating to user-generated content and I have a panic attack, cancel my facebook account and change my eMail address, then spend the next three days periodically checking my bank balance to make sure nobody's stolen my identity.
So what is it about web2.0/networking sites that scares the crap out of me? I mean, I chuckle at the news stories of people being stalked on mySpace, dismiss the attempts of sites like Yahoo! to make their sites more secure by adding phishing filters and sign-in seals as naive, yet I am still loathe to use my real name when filling out forms on line, as if it will actually afford me some sort of protection.
I think it boils down to the same mistrust of humanity that prevents me from putting my telephone number and billing address on business cards and handing them out to strangers outside Flinders Street Station. People are creepy, no matter where they are. They are creepy on trains, in parks, at the football(all denominations, some more than others) and in the comfort of their own home, so why should they not be creepy on the internet?
In many ways the internet makes it easier for people to be creepy, what with the optional anonymity etcetera, which I suppose is the basis for my misgivings about web2.0 technology. Give people the opportunity to delve into other people's lives and they'll take it. Let them do it behind a fake name and even the most well-mannered person can easily become a demented voyeur.
Personally, I suspect that my fears are baseless, just paranoia and mistrust, but that doesn't stop the nagging feeling that runs around my subconscious in cleats every time someone I barely know asks if I have a mySpace. I mean, all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Man finds long-lost sibling thanks to Facebook. Adopted daughter reunited with favourite puppy on Youtube. Even a friend of mine was contacted by a cousin she hadn't seen in years and had pretty much consigned to the depths of Fell-out-of-contact-Land. So it really does do good things. But also, I've had other friends the targets of ridiculous, childish bullying, smear-campaigns, rumourmongering and other such skulduggery.
I suppose you take the good with the bad, but the whole thing just smacks a little too much of the Cult of Self-Worship for me. In some cases it just seems like it's religious war in miniature, acted out with crossposting and spam, instead of flaming pitchforks. If someone disrespects your God, you start your armies marching. If someone posts bad press about you on their mySpace, you get your friends and bomb their comments section.
I think that's probably the main reason I keep a few layers of whimsy between me and the masses. You can't call it self worship if you can't find your self.
