I know at this point a lot of it is related to money, but there was a transitional time that led to this point that I’m still confused by.
What details changed about online spaces that made many folks more comfortable sharing so much under their real names between the “Be careful!” times to where we are now?
I’m guessing the internet changing from a side activity/hobby to a core feature in people’s lives.
Did anything change? I don’t see any apparent difference between thing we see today and the things posted to Usenet in the 80s.
The population of the internet has grown substantially since those early Usenet days. Perhaps it seems like there is more being shared because there are many more people doing it?
Well, what I mean is the real name association with what’s being shared. Maybe I’m mistaken here, but much of my time online it was more anonymous/pseudonymous up until more recently (by which I guess I mean the past decade or so now?) with more folks posting & sharing a lot under real names and/or in relation to photos/videos of themselves.
Real names were common on Usenet.
It is true that the
fingercamp often went by their Unix usernames, and that culture often carried over to newer communication platforms. I don’t think that parallel culture ever went away, though. It is seen here, for example.
Idk about anyone else’s more liberal use of personal information, but I know for me I stopped caring once it became clear that online privacy is an illusion. Yeah, I could go out of my way to be super private and not reveal anything, but all it takes is someone better at snooping than I am at being private to reveal me. Not that anyone has a reason to in the first place, but I just don’t see the point in hiding behind anything more than the carnival masks we are all wearing.
There is a signifignat space between “total privacy” and “share everything”.
Plus there is also a difference between being sniffed by some web crawler and a targeted motivated investigation. Just avoid being completely careless with what you share online, set up some an ad and tracker blocker and privacy isn’t that difficult.
I imagine it depends on what info you’re comfortable having connected to your name. My Facebook has my real name, and I’d be ok sharing what I cooked for dinner, but i wouldn’t share hyper personal details.
On an anonymous website I’d share more personal info because my name isn’t associated with it. I don’t have to worry about my coworkers asking me why I’m subscribed to r/SlimegirlHentai
I think when social media became more broadly adopted or even necessary for use outside of the internet. I still remember being forced to make a Facebook account to access schoolwork and notices from my school.
A lot of people were also just not taught about safeguarding your information on the internet. So when the human need to connect got more convenient, people ended up sharing whatever they thought without thinking of the consequences.
