In an age where so many people are occupying YouTube with videos of themselves; privacy seems like a luxury but it's not. Being able to go out on a bad hair day without trending, walk into a store without being recognized and enjoy the simple practice of living without judgment isn't optional. Many of us require the need to disconnect from a society that feeds on consumerism, aesthetics and a simulated sense of self worth; in order to become empowered. By doing so, we are able to live a more deliberate life in a society that would rather we reinforce incentives that are advertiser driven.

It seems impossible to escape the thralls of commercialism and its effects. According to Glenn Greenwald’s book “No Place to Hide,” this exposé economy hinders the development of the self, since time is spent on external validation. To take this a step further, by remaining complicit in our acceptance, we forfeit the right to shape who we aspire to become (Greenwald). What this means is that we forgo our time engaging with life, nurturing hobbies and who we were meant to be because we are busy chasing metrics. The person we would otherwise have become is simply postponed.

Despite privacy’s value, society pushes us in the opposite direction; making it hard for those who value independence. Ideas can be bought and sold; threatening intellectual autonomy, while creating a sense of democracy that seems real. Mark Bergen’s book “Like, Comment, Subscribe,” reiterates the fact that social sites like YouTube give the impression of having an expressive voice but that’s thwarted by the need for things like sponsorship that drives the content being produced (Bergen). The irony makes us less our authentic selves, as a receptacle for marketing; more so than creativity.

It becomes apparent that influence is king and so is the ability to build a brand, build a household name or build a lifestyle; at any expense. What we learn is that it’s virtually impossible to establish a residual income; if you aren't part of this social momentum. Needless to say, there’s a stiff penalty for opting out of this phenomenon, and how well one fares is often relegated to the ability to forego their layers of discretion. One might assume that there is something to hide for those of us who are privacy oriented but it’s more about getting personal information out of the hands of data brokers.

It becomes apparent that by broadcasting our lives, we open ourselves up to things we’ve never had to consider before with wide reaching implications that have yet to be fully understood. Refusing to believe that we can actually become a victim makes us more vulnerable to becoming one; while mechanisms like algorithmic tracking, targeted marketing, data breaches and behavioral exploitation run amok. For others the trade off makes it all worthwhile, since the benefit has outweighed the risk; riding that wave of transformation has resulted in an engineered virality that has simply won out.

It dawned on me that those of us who aren’t huge social media hounds just get flushed out more forcibly these days in a time where the right to be left alone is currently under assault. This is due to data collection, government monitoring and the third party access to information on the web. Consequently, our protection is rarely fool proof but we can certainly take steps to reduce the likelihood of falling into the hands of unwanted risk. Consequently, there’s no dichotomy between being seen and being watched; they are not mutually exclusive. What we’re consenting to is in a perpetual state of instability.

While it's true, there are fewer places on the internet for the anonymity minded but there are always personal web sites, blogs and discord servers. This becomes a subtle reminder that our inner world is our sanctuary and isn't for sale; the items we own inside our homes, where we are showing up for tea and who we are with isn't necessarily meant for the world to see. Once we lose that, we lose ourselves; since social media tends to regard us as only a quantifiable data point. Sometimes privacy is worth more than any revenue that data streaming can offer because it protects us and our freedom to exist.