Privacy 's Perception Of Privacy

With the rise of the internet, some people argue that privacy no longer exists. From the 2013 revelations of government surveillance of citizens’ communications to companies that monitor their employees’ internet usage, this argument seems to be increasingly true. Yet, Harvard Law professor Charles Fried states that privacy, “is necessarily related to ends and relations of the most fundamental sort: respect, love, friendship and trust” (Fried 477). However, Fried is not arguing that in a world where privacy, in its most simple terms, is becoming scarce that these foundations of human interactions are also disappearing. Instead, Fried expands on the traditional definition of privacy while contesting that privacy, although typically viewed

When people are frontstage, they are in a public area and are aware of the people watching them, so they alter their behaviors to fit the situation. When people are backstage, they are in a private setting with people they trust, and can behave how they normally do. This is exactly what I witnessed with the nurses. When in a patient’s room, they modify their behavior in order to fit the situation appropriately, and when in the breakroom, surrounded by people they trust, they were able to behave in a less restrictive manner. This proves that everyone is influenced by the social structures of society.

As human beings and citizens of the world, everyone values their privacy. It is a right that is often looked over and taken for granted by most. Since the beginning of time, there have been concerns about individuals’ rights to privacy and their personal information remaining confidential. Our founding fathers had concerns about this which is why, “…this right has developed into

In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.

Goffman refers to the act of an individual presenting themselves in front of an audience or a specific set of observers a ‘performance’. The performers convey impressions and information to others in order to support the identity they are presenting, some of the factors engrained in the performance are an appropriate setting, manners, appearance, and front. Goffman refers to a front stage, back stage, as well as an off stage, these regions are meant to reflect how an ‘actor’ may act when in front of different audiences or no audience at all. Goffman touches upon how an

The front stage is where we are able to control what someone may see. Whereas the back stage is where we are able to let our guard down. Both front and back stage is something we are able to control, how people perceive us is something we can not control.

In The Presentation of Everyday Life, Goffman lays out the seven elements that create a performance: belief in the role that is being played, the front or ‘mask’, dramatic realization, idealization, maintenance of expressive control, misrepresentation, and deception/mystification. Using the simple description of someone interviewing for a job, we can see that “As he seeks to assume the role of an ideal employee (idealization), he tries (in his performance) to convey a certain image about himself through his dress, his speech, and his expressions (his front), emphasizing those things that he wants the interviewers to know (dramatic realization). He has to maintain control over these expressions throughout the interview (maintenance of expressive control). Any lapse in his performance in that role (misrepresentation) may lead to him revealing those things that he has been trying to conceal (mystification).” (Corbin, 2012)

Privacy is what allows people to feel secure in their surroundings. With privacy, one is allowed to withhold or distribute the information they want by choice, but the ability to have that choice is being violated in today’s society. Benjamin Franklin once said, “He who sacrifices freedom or liberty will eventually have neither.” And that’s the unfortunate truth that is and has occurred in recent years. Privacy, especially in such a fast paced moving world, is extremely vital yet is extremely violated, as recently discovered the NSA has been spying on U.S. citizens for quite a while now; based on the Fourth Amendment, the risk of leaked and distorted individual information, as well as vulnerability to lack of anonymity.

As a growing topic of discussion, privacy in our society has stirred quite some concern. With the increase of technology and social networking our standards for privacy have been altered and the boundary between privacy and government has been blurred. In the article, Visible Man: Ethics in a World Without Secrets, Peter Singer addresses the different aspects of privacy that are being affected through the use of technology. The role of privacy in a democratic society is a tricky endeavor, however, each individual has a right to privacy. In our society, surveillance undermines privacy and without privacy there can be no democracy.

Mirrors in the restroom serves as a tool that help people to adjust their clothes and putting make-ups to prepare for their appearance to others (prepare for the frontstage). The drumaturgical concept applies often to my everyday life. Backstage performance is when I prepare for my presentation about my research topic. I have to summarize the key findings, put into a poster, and print it out. The next step is to rehearse for the presentation and make sure that I can clearly explain to the audiences in a 15 minutes talk. At first, I just read the contents directly from my notes and relax to feel the sense of it. Later, as the materials are well arranged in my head, the next step is to prepare for the gesture and speech. Then, I do the presentation in front of my best friends and seek for their advice. I try to avoid putting hands in the pocket and use formal languages. Finally, I go to the laundry to wash and iron my business casual. Front stage occurs when I present my research confidently and can explain the key findings and significance of my research to the

The article, “Front Row Seats: Preparing Young Audiences for Life Performances” by Rekha S. Rajan, is significant in determining audience expectations as well as understanding the preparation for live and in-school performances. Before reading this article, I was unaware what the term, “fourth wall” meant. This term is considered an invisible barrier between the performer and audience that subsists within all genres of performing arts. During a performance, musicians create the “fourth wall” by closing their eyes while playing or by standing behind a music stand. I find this term to be interesting and shocking, just as the article mentioned that audience members find this concept provocative as well.

Although actions in the public are considered to have no reasonable expectation of privacy, we forget that a home is considered everything including the curtilage that surrounds the home. Therefore we need to take into consideration that the backyard and patio is essentially attached to the home and can be considered to be apart of the curtilage associated with the home. Therefore, by utilizing the R.E.P. two-fold requirement where the first-fold is: associated with Turner having a reasonable expectation of privacy, there is an agreeing opinion. However, the second-fold where instead of concluding that society does not recognize Turner’s expectation of privacy as unreasonable, it is in fact according to societies standards, reasonable. Due

The words, “Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say” were said by Edward Snowden who is a computer professional in America. Similarly, the essays “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” “Web Users Get as Much as They Give,” and “Facebook Is Using You” from Nicholas Carr, Jim Harper, and Lori Andrews respectively points out that the internet privacy is good and bad. However, the articles by Carr and Andrews are based on the negative side of the internet privacy, which means that the internet privacy is not good. On the other hand, Harper’s article is based on the positive side of the internet privacy, which means that the internet privacy is good and scary, but people need to be careful of their own information and browsing histories, and websites. Jim Harper’s essay is more relevant and reasonable than the Nicholas Carr and Lori Andrews’s essays. However, Harper seems more persuasive to readers because he believes that the internet is good if people use it in a right way, whereas Carr and Andrews believe that the internet is not good at all.

Goffman, E. 1959. ‘Performances’ chapter 1, from the presentation of self in everyday life. London: penguin.

Today, individuals are sacrificing privacy in order to feel safe. These sacrifices have made a significant impact on the current meaning of privacy, but may have greater consequences in the future. According to Debbie Kasper in her journal, “The Evolution (Or Devolution) of Privacy,” privacy is a struggling dilemma in America. Kasper asks, “If it is gone, when did it disappear, and why?”(Kasper 69). Our past generation has experienced the baby boom, and the world today is witnessing a technological boom. Technology is growing at an exponential rate, thus making information easier to access and share than ever before. The rapid diminishing of privacy is leaving Americans desperate for change.