No "Group Privacy" In The Online World

I really overran with that last post about the Labour leadership election. I was intending to mesh this little piece in with it, but it was getting far too long. Anyway, we've recently had the whole thing where Andrew Sabisky, the adviser hired by Dominic Cummings, was pressured into resigning over online comments about eugenics he'd previously made (amongst other mildly controversial takes).

I won't go into what he said. That's been done to death over the last few days. It does seem something worthy of note though. It's probably the biggest setback for Cummings so far since the election. In a way it's his first defeat. So it could be important. Hopefully it won't be too damaging though.

Obviously I come down firmly on the side of Cummings on the issue. Regardless of what the guy has posted online it's clearly a case of the media cherry-picking soundbites to get a scalp. How can we function as a civilisation if adults can't have open conversations without fearing for their job - or their future careers as is the case here.

..my own online history

Things like this always make me reassess my own online output. I don't think they'd let me into No. 10 to clean the toilets given some of the things I've posted online over the years. I don't post anything that's too offensive (I don't think), but I have posted a hell of a lot of "conspiracy" stuff. Which would probably be viewed in an even more negative light.

Over the last year or so I have tried to clean up my act a little, to be a bit more diplomatic so to speak, but it's so hard. Often you feel it's a moral necessity that you speak out about something. Other times you may just want to joke around or tease wider society a little by saying something a little edgy. Then again it might just be a momentary outburst inspired by something seen on TV or elsewhere. Or some weird combination of all of the above.

Twitter is the worst for me at the moment. It's so instant, perhaps the closest thing to real life conversation given its immediacy. It might take me 30 or 40 minutes to do a blog post like this. I'll read it back a few times. Check the spelling. It gives me time to think, to change my mind perhaps (plus it allows me room to explain any "controversial" opinions I may be choosing to express). With Twitter it's literally seconds between thought and tweet.

Personally I enjoy it. It's fun. It's a different medium. You can be light-hearted and post throwaway memes and whatnot. The problem is though that such throwaway things can now be stripped of their context and presented in a completely different light.

There's also the problem that often people don't understand the context to begin with. They may not have the same sense of humour, or be on the same wavelength. You may post something for your friends or followers who share your values and reference points, but someone from outside that may see it quite differently.

Normally in real life people behave differently depending on who they're with too. Most people for example don't speak to their parents the way they speak to their mates. The context is different. Consequently if the two worlds do collide it can be awkward or embarrassing. You don't necessarily want your parents seeing what you're like when you're on a night out with friends. Or for that matter your friends or work colleagues seeing what you're like at home.

It's similar online. You may be speaking (or rather typing) with one audience in mind. Not thinking that it's potentially going to be viewed by a different audience at some point, perhaps in a different context. You may make a "sexist" joke online when talking to your friends, who aren't in the least bit offended by it, but when your girlfriend or work colleagues see it they may take a different view. It wasn't typed with those people in mind, but they don't see that. Now you're just a horrible sexist in their eyes. The context is completely abandoned. You may as well have screamed it in the public square for all they care. They've now found out what you "really think".

This is the problem with online content. Everyone sees everything. There is no "group privacy". Every room you're in has glass walls. It's not like popping down the pub where only the people in the pub with you can hear your chit-chat and opinions. There's nowhere safe for you to let your hair down and just shoot the breeze. In fact, now because of camera phones you're not even safe in the pub anymore. Someone may film your antics there and share that performance with the whole wide world online. Forever to be used as evidence against you.

And if you do try to do things with a degree of privacy. By having a separate Twitter account with a pseudonym perhaps. Or by having a private group chat just for your particular group of friends. Then if that gets discovered it's judged even more harshly - "as now you're deliberately trying to hide your disgusting little jokes and opinions".

There's now a common joke on Twitter surrounding the fact that men fear their partners finding out about their secret Twitter accounts 😄. Your loved ones finding out you've been posting memes and political opinions online behind a silly avatar is now the equivalent of someone finding out you're a cross-dresser. Of course, ironically you can now cross-dress quite openly. Your friends and family have to tolerate that on pain of their own excommunication from wider society.

(Will I get the Andrew Sabisky treatment if some future colleague comes across this blog and discovers I've made a joke about cross-dressers? 😨 ).

So it really is a minefield. You either live your life in fear of putting your foot wrong and never express a word or honest emotion. Or you say your piece, but with the acceptance that it may have a great social and economic cost for you personally.

We can't all live like this. Sooner or later it'll reach a point where no one of any substance is employable because of things they've said online at some point in their life.