Vocal Voices

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... iving-away

An interesting - and slightly distressing article - not least about the Samaritans' suicide app ....

As someone who is operating perhaps a technological generation behind many other people - mobile phone never left on, not on Twitter / Facebook, rarely use internet banking, not signed up to energy accounts, opted out of every NHS initiative to garner and share my medical data (mind you, I think I'm fighting a losing battle on that one, there are so many "initiatives" coming from the quack fraternity these days) - I keep a relatively low profile and probably have less to worry about than most ... but nevertheless, where are we going with all this?

I think there have always been people in British society - usually upper and upper middle class - who think that they have the absolute right to tell anybody else in the world what they should be doing. I suppose this is how we got an Empire.

Now we don't have an empire, but we still have the same sort of person, thinking that they have the right to tell you exactly, down to the last detail, how you should be living your life. Mostly they seem to be in politics and the medical profession and the dreaded "campaigners".

So now we are told about what we should be eating, how much we should be drinking, how much we should be exercising, and what we should be thinking. This goes against any sort of privacy; you are there to be told what to do. So the acquisition (and sometimes the resale) of your data is all part of this. If our rulers decide they should be knowing all about us - for our own good, you understand - they will help themselves to as much of our data as they want.

There was an interesting programme on ITV the other night looking at what teenagers do with these sorts of technologies. It was disturbing that they actively demand to be connected, to see and be seen, to love and be loved. They had no consideration for anyone but "self", and they needed to share that self with anyone and everyone, so long as the sharers were supportive.

There was a scene where three slightly older women held a session teaching the younger ones how to interact with each other, how to give and accept compliments and how to give and accept criticism. For all the good it did they may as well have been speaking to a bag of jelly babies.

Towards the end one young girl looked into the camera and said that by being connected she had more friends. It never dawned on her that Angela from Chelmsford might be spotty Bob from Romford using pics of "himself", the blonde beauty, downloaded from Facebook.

It is this generation who will eventually become the drones of the future for those at the top to control at will. Not a moment goes by when they are without their "security blankets" and if one does get separated from the other it is nervous breakdown time - probably for both parties. "OMG, OMG, OMG I missed you sooo much!" says the text from the phone, "And I you, sweetheart" says Pennylopee as she gives it a hug.

Sad but true

I have managed to partly cure #2 daughter of this. It took me more than 5 years to get it through her head that"friend" on Facebook whom you have never met == "Acquaintance". I guess having a teenage child and listening to his drivel about friends helped. So did the furious row over the phone about her eBay and bank account having been compromised. I was wrong you know.

The chastened call to tell me her account had been attacked helped a lot.