The Age of Entanglement Between Public and Private Personas

            "The idea that you can keep track of someone's life without them knowing you exist" is a thought explored in the article "The New Paparazzi" by Emma Teitel. The main subject in this article is that in this day and age, everyone is equipped with cameras and the technology to distribute them to the public easily. Teitel has done some very detailed research as she cites many sources and interviews with people on the subject. She is correct in the way she depicts the situation, every moment someone is in public they are vulnerable to the fact that their actions can be put online.

Teitel accurately portrays the situation at hand; that “digital cameras have become a house-party staple” now, although it is mostly teenage girls being the “serial camera carriers.” Many interviews with young adults/teenagers have shown the exact same problem, “Generation Y is obsessed with documenting its social life.” The fact that one way or another “the event will be photographed and eventually uploaded is [inevitable]” today, because “everyone has [a] cellphone.” Facebook and Twitter make an easy platform to distribute these pictures as well. Many people are finding apathy towards who sees what they have done, whether it is a friend or future employer. “The inclination of young people [is] to live in the moment” and not care about the future implications it can have.

Similarly people are exposed, whether they like it or not. The fact is, anyone can take a picture of someone else and upload it to social media without their consent. Although that may not be morally the right thing to do, doing “what’s appropriate … is incredibly hard to gauge in a photo-sharing age.” There is a harsh reality now that the only way to avoid having pictures such as these showing up on social media is “means avoiding the party altogether.” “Many people agree with the tabloid culture analogy” that everyone has a wide variety of their personal life on display to the public. This can be a positive situation, where it displays your positive events you’re involved in (sports, volunteering, etc), or detrimental to one’s public affiliations. Usually it’s the latter, pictures and statements of people “more concerned with telling secrets than keeping them.” 

 "The truth is that Generation Y doesn't care about it's privacy until it's been violated" is almost an understatement. People post stupid things of themselves and their friends without ever worrying about the consequences. The topic of staying anonymous is more important than that of keeping their own privacy. Teitel shares that she wanted to delete her Facebook account was "not when Sara Melvin posted over a hundred embarrassing photos of [her], but when [her] right to anonymously browse ... was temporarily jeopardized."

            I believe Teitel's article is fairly accurate when it comes to explaining the process of why there are so many scandalous photos of people out there. People are just apathetic when it comes to wanting privacy and are going to have to learn the hard way that employers really do care what kind of a person they are. The fact that so many teens these days can have their life documented completely online, on display for the world to see is a very alarming fact. Do we need to change what is happening in the world? Or is the world just going to evolve to adapt this new culture.