We share data with the algorithm as easily as a child makes a pinky promise with their best friend on the playground, and the internet cares as much about our digital privacy as that five-year-old friend who forgot they weren’t supposed to tell anyone the secret. Yet we type our information into a search bar and click and scroll. All while the internet learns more about us and shapes our digital identities, often without our knowledge.
Allow Notifications? Accept.
In a world of decreasing attention span, how quickly does a single notification send us down a spiral of clicks? We end up scrolling and forget what we were doing before our phone buzzed. Ding! Pattyxoxo20 liked your post! We can take back control. Ding! 50% today only! Click now! When you download an app, before you can even see the main screen, a pop-up appears: “Allow notifications?” Blindly clicking Accept has become second nature. What’s the big deal? Ding! Final hours! App exclusive! As Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing with Digital Technologies by Lindsey C. Kim notes, you must shut the door to intrusion. A large part of getting your privacy under control starts with considering the choices we make without second thought about the information that flows into our digital spaces.
Influence on Education and the Future
How can we expect the next generation to realize the dangers of data privacy when today’s students have known nothing else? Today’s 3rd graders can find the time and knowledge to break down firewalls to play Roblox in class, but this tenacity stops when it comes to a short text they need to read for an assignment. As discussed in the article “Messy & Chaotic Learning” by Martha Fay Burtis, pedagogy is rapidly changing with advances in technology and the web. These systems streamline how school “should be done,” following the rigid outlines of a computer system. Additionally, students are dominated by their online personas. We think we understand the dangers of the web, yet much remains unknown. Personal lives and education are continuing to adapt to the web and every aspect of daily life, which is why it’s more crucial than ever to understand how to protect your privacy online.
Taking back control—or are we?
Burtis mentioned that students at the University of Mary Washington are given their own piece of the internet, where they can customize and control it. With a personalized name, these students, in a way, take back control of their writing and their privacy. As mentioned in Kim’s article, creating a private place for ourselves, like these students, shuts the door. Yet, how much control and ownership are we really getting back? While websites like these give us ownership of our work rather than uploading it and diminishing those rights to other domains or programs, we cannot fully escape them. While we can gain some control over our data and privacy, the world we live in doesn’t allow us to do so completely. If we want to be members of this society, we don’t really have a choice.
So, as Burtis mentions, we need to take it upon ourselves to critically think about what we are sharing and our “relationship with technology” to protect our information. We need to advocate for web safety, yet that is a long road. So, educating ourselves and others is, like Burtis suggests, a good place to start.
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