SCRIPT
DISCUSSION TRIGGER 4: Should we think more carefully about the information we share about ourselves? Lizzie returns to her laptop. She returns to Simon’s Facebook/Social Network profile. His status update reads: ‘I SHARE, THEREFORE I AM’. There he is. On the screen, she goes through pictures of Simon having fun in pubs and beaches and on trips to the country and at parties wearing conical hats. Lizzie looks at them in awe. Lizzie
So much life…
A notification pops up. ‘Simon has tagged a photo of you’. Troubled, she clicks through to the picture - it is the picture that she took of the two of them just a minute ago – the both of them smiling, looking happy. Lizzie
Oh god
ISSUES/PROMPTS
COMMENT
She refreshes. And all of a sudden people begin to comment on the picture. Slowly, at first – but as Lizzie begins to feel violated with greater and greater rapidity – a nightmare panicky binge of messages, that eventually exceed Facebook. These messages culminate in a messy screen-crash of text and binary-code-gobbledegook, as Lizzie, who cannot take anymore, panic attacks understatedly.
Lizzie is sent into panic by what she perceives as a gross invasion of her privacy. Simon's sharing of a single photograph and the subsequent comments from all of their friends reminds us how the internet has made possible a world of sharing that allows people to reach audiences of sizes only previously accessible to celebrities. Simon’s Facebook status is telling: 'I share, therefore I am' – a sort of motto for the way he lives. Simon is comfortable sharing all his personal details. But is a picture that features not only him, but Lizzie, really his to share? • • • • •
What are the dangers of sharing our details online? What happens if information falls into the wrong hands? Who owns information once it has been uploads onto sites like facebook? Information is copied all across the internet - is it really possible to remove something once it is posted? Do we have the right to share information that relates to other people?