Give a Girl a Moment

Wow, it has officially been more than a month since I last wrote. I'm pretty sure no one cares, but I'm going to be more dedicated to this thing... NYR! (new years resolution)

So I was on a date today and realized that this person knew much more about me than I did about him. Not because I talked his ear off and didn't let him get a word in edgewise (I really didn't, I swear) not because he is intuitive, but because he googled my name and... my entire life came up.

I guess between blogspot, facebook, myspace, youtube, and the various other websites that we all now have made a part of our everyday life, the notion of privacy has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Although keeping secrets will always be a part of human nature when face-to-face, people are now accustomed to sharing their innermost thoughts and experiences for millions of people to watch, read, and above all: judge.
Let's face it people: the internet might have started out for porn, but it ended up being the most convenient and anonymous tool for passing judgement on others. With the simple click of the mouse, you can insult someone's life choices halfway across the globe.
The internet. A thing of beauty if not a joy forever.

Back to this date, it had never even occured to me that a complete stranger could know that much about me as long as they had my full name. I guess because I never gave it much thought, I forgot that, unless otherwise specified, myspace profiles are available to anyone and everyone, and facebook profiles are available to anyone with a working facebook account. And by the way, anyone CAN get one, and probably already has.

The basis of looking someone up is to get an idea of them, or, to put it bluntly, judge them. Good for me that I happened to pass this particular round, but who's to say what others will think in the future? Possible lovers, friends, employers, all waiting to type, google, and pounce. The weird thing is, I never thought it was that bad that people would know who I am, because I don't feel like I have anything to hide. At least once I didn't. But as we grow older, we form more walls, we have a front, and it badly shakes us when someone gets a peek behind the wall that we did not authorize.
It's not that we weren't going to ever show them, but we wanted to do it in our own sweet time. Unfortunately the internet sped up that process to the nth degree, as is it's job.

Along with everything else, we as a species need to learn to adapt to our high-speed lifestyles that we have asked for and recieved. Although our brains can easily keep up with the changing technology, our heart takes just a little bit longer.

So until it does, everyone, make sure you know what is out there for the world to know and what is protected, what people can see, and what they can't. In this beautifully dangerous world, we find people that we don't have to hide ourselves from, and that makes them feel special.

Let's keep it that way.