Who Needs Privacy

Remember when things were private? Remember when certain stuff was supposed be kept behind closed doors?

‘Dirty linen’ was expected to be dealt with inside the family circle, away from judging, prying eyes.

I certainly remember craving a lock and key for my bedroom door as a teenager because then, more than ever before, I recognised privacy as being my fundamental right.

To be an adult, i thought, meant to hold secrets and to own personal space.

Not any more. Now, privacy is less than sacred.

Look at the way everyone is offering their private thoughts, beliefs, values and careful decisions online for all to see and indeed, comment on.

Look at how family events and circumstances are being documented through photos and dialogue on social networking sites.

See into the lives of people of all ages; of both genders; of all disciplines, broadcasting their grievances and disputes for all to hear; at which all can gawk.

The public arena is slowly merging with the private one. And isn’t it great!!?

Wife-beaters are finding it more and more difficult to hide their violent behaviour because people are more aware, and less inclined to ignore such violence.

People know violence is wrong, regardless of whether it’s going on in the ‘private’ familial home or not.

Although domestic abuse still goes on (and on) the victims of abuse now know that they will not be judged or demonised by the outside world for being a victim of violence. They’ll be more aware of where the help is and how to avail of it. They will feel less isolated because they will be conscious of the hundreds of millions of other victims of domestic abuse in the world as well as the victims who escaped their domestic cruelty.

The private bubble is bursting and there is ever-less protection of abusers in the home.

The lack of privacy is also ridding us of taboos.

No longer is it terrible to admit to suffering from mental illness because millions of people have told us about it online.

Sex and death are now frequent topics of conversation, as are the subjects of pregnancy, reproductive systems, illness, money, racism and so on.

Tv programmes like Embarrassing Bodies and Supersize vs Superskinny highlights the shame we feel about our bodies and in doing so, alleviates some of that shame

Some issues are meant to be discussed and the privacy that shrouded them for centuries has held us back.

However, endless reality programmes, which unfathomably and supremely invade the lives of their participants, are the architects of something different.

Shows like Big Brother and Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here are more voyeuristic and less informative.

They aren’t necessary for the development of society.

The same goes for a new British reality show, (adapted from a US show) which depicts the seeking-out of adopted children by birth parents.

The whole search-and-find process is documented in a way that is invasive, persistent and insidious.

Of course, adoption is another taboo that is now being explored by the media but there are other, softer ways to go about examining this important aspect of so many peoples’ lives.

Tread softly on these new means of uncovering cob-webbed subjects because this doing-away with privacy is all very new to us.