Should we share everything?
What an odd and quite shocking question to ask, especially given without any context.
When searching the web, many don’t realize how easily accessible the information they are looking for is. Looking up a recipe, looking up news, learning the latest story, and seeing what is going on on the other side of the world. That’s very cool! Yet, it’s been seen as normal now and will continue to be seen as normal from now on.
We put in our information online in many different ways through apps and websites, even information about others at times. Though is that a good thing?
We look up things online in order to get information on celebrities, current events, books, and even information about the government. Yet, can we believe all that information?
One thing was certain, though: if you weren’t someone of power, someone with special academic knowledge, or even someone with a specialized position, then you weren’t going to get the information you wanted. Even then, if you did, you wouldn’t even know if it was correct or not. It was even worse if it had anything to do with political issues.
In the article, “Who says we know?: On the New Politics of Knowledge,” Larry Sanger argues that knowledge has become more democratic due to the rise of things such as websites. However, this is both good and bad.
Sanger sees it as a positive for people to get closer together, especially on topics of disagreement, yet when it comes to the negative, it’s a warning of sorts. A warning not to set aside the experts who are actually there to help people out.
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The democratization of knowledge gives many opportunities to make a change. Yet, that change can be the cause of something harmful.
Imagine this: you had committed some form of a small crime in your hometown, and it gets put in a news article. Your name, your image, your crime are all over the news, leaving you out.
Years later, when trying to apply to jobs, they talk about the same thing; it’s about the crime you had committed years ago, and it’s still showing up today. However, you tell yourself that you have changed and you wish you were forgotten in the news articles, from the media, as it’s destroying opportunities for yourself and affecting your personal life.
It might seem helpful that the news and the creation of news articles help people communicate crimes and spread awareness of anything dangerous. It’s even worse that the media has shaped people's perception of crime.
In the podcast, “Right to be Forgotten,” by Radiolab, they talk about how, on the online world, anything and everything lives there forever, especially if it’s about your life. In the episode, it’s further explained that a group of journalists try out an experiment that has the possibility of changing things, throught them unpublishing content they’ve published. Anything and everything, they go through the decision of whether or not a case stays.
Criminal cases, misunderstandings, and small things that affect one to many people, all due to it being on the web. This brings up the question again. Should everything be shared?
Yes, it’s good to have all the information in the world; it’s good to give it to others who are seeking it as well.
However, approach with caution. Challenge your knowledge by seeking out the information you need, but don’t rely on it too much.
