I never thought about deleting myself from Facebook. After all, how else would I know that four of my high school classmates have had children? Or that one of my best friends from home just broke up with his girlfriend? Even so, it was still disturbing to read a New York Times article informing me that Facebook "is like the Hotel California...you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
As such an important part of students' lives, most of us have no intention of removing ourselves from Facebook. But still, it would be nice to have the option. The discovery that Facebook deletion was not easy, however, revealed one of the benefits of the information age: increased accountability.
We often complain that the Internet makes people too easy to track, or we fear being tracked by others. I have had friends google past and prospective hookups, either impressed by their accomplishments or humored by embarrassing things they have written. In fact, a simple Google search could tell you the results of a standardized math test I took in seventh grade. The information age is guilty of too much information, for sure, and once it is out there, it is out there for good.
The Times' Facebook expos led to mass panic as it was forwarded around through email (and Facebook messages), alerting users everywhere to the deletion problem. By the next day, Facebook had altered their "help page" to give instructions on how to permanently delete accounts and promised to make permanent deletion easier. The information age leads to quicker resolution of problems; information spreads online infinitely faster than by simple word of mouth.
If I can receive "Breaking News Alerts" and three Blitzes within five minutes of Heath Ledger dying, it stands to reason that I can alert others when I have been ripped off by a company or find out that my personal information could be stored on Facebook forever.
Once the frenzy hits a certain level, a company like Facebook needs to deal with the issue immediately or risk a hit in the court of public opinion. The Internet allows the user to hold the provider accountable.
I still have qualms with many aspects of online privacy. I can never be sure how much of my information is out there for the highest bidder, nor can I guarantee that some impressive hacker has not figured out my credit card information and Social Security number without me knowing.
If that hacker has succeeded, however, I can check my balance online and report it immediately (sometimes in the course of regular use I get an e-mail about suspicious activity on my account). It is certainly a cat-and-mouse game -- with accountability chasing problems -- but so far accountability is faring quite well.
The Internet has brought the spread of many other kinds of accountability as well. There are blogs that almost instantaneously check the facts our political leaders cite and can expose controversial votes that their constituents may not support. Soon other blogs can pop up to hold the initial blogs accountable, and eventually all of these groups create the interlocking web of accountability we know and love.
Though there are aspects of the information age that are even too much for me (there is much more inane celebrity gossip than I could ever keep track of), along with this increase in information has come an increase in accountability which gives me hope that the World Wide Web really has not become some sort of Big Brother.
After all, if Dartmouth College was tracking my Internet usage, I could shoot off a blitz to people at The Dartmouth (or an outside newspaper) and reveal the administration's hypothetical dirty secret within days. In fact, we might even be able to organize and formulate a protest all without ever physically speaking to anyone else. Now I do no think the College is tracking which websites I visit, but it is nice to know that the specter of their involvement in my life is matched by the opportunities I have to reveal their indiscretions if they do. In the information age, everyone can have power. All it takes is the tools to communicate.
