I have been slowly catching up on podcasts from late last year now that I’m back at work. I was listening to one yesterday from NPR’s On Point discussing the Wikileaks scandal, but moreover, the world that we now inhabit with regards to leaks, the internet, and overall availability of information.
Toward the end of the segment, the host, Tom Ashbrook, was talking to the former Director of Intelligence, John Negroponte. He asked Negroponte how we, the United States, would/could deal with a leak like this. Negroponte answered that they would do their best to prevent it from happening in the first place, placing greater restrictions on the individuals that can access certain information, and then also help re-classify information that should be classified versus that which really doesn’t need to be. Ashbrook kept pressing him on the matter, asking: “What would you do in the event of a leak? How would you stop it?” Negroponte kept going back to “stop it at the source.” It was getting really annoying to keep hearing the same question over and over, when I kept repeating the answer in my head as often as Ashbrook could ask.
The correct answer?
You do nothing.
There is nothing you can do. Once the Internet has your information, you’re done. It’s out there and you can’t stop it. You can shut down a server or two, but the information propagates to such a degree that you can never fully eradicate any of it.
As happens frequently, this exchange got me thinking about generational differences and their views on the Internet as a whole, specifically to what degree each generation seems to embrace the sharing of information. [Note: I have talked about this before…] For those of us that grew up in parallel with the Internet (i.e. it was growing as we were growing), I think the transition was easy. We learned to live together, gradually sharing some bits of information and withholding others. We were using the Internet before Google even existed, when all you could do is use Yahoo! to find a website that you had to manually file within their database. There was no Facebook. There was no YouTube. Primarily we were takers of information rather than providers, at least until we became more comfortable contributing to this new ecosystem.
The generation(s) older than me have taken to the Internet at a slower pace (at least in terms of creating new information…), largely because they’re more cautious. Quite a few folks from those generations are now using e-mail and Facebook, and consequently are now starting to rely on it to a greater degree than ever before. You can still see the delay in overall adoption in things like smart phones though, where these people are just now starting to get into the mode where they think complete and total connectivity is a necessity. This is likely because their children and grandchildren are also more accessible, so if they want to contact them, this is how they have to do it.
It’s the younger generation(s) that I’m more curious about. These people are growing up in a world where the Internet “just exists,” much like air and gravity. It’s a reality. It’s something you live with and use. I guess the difference goes back to information sharing, the older generation never really shared things and stayed more private, my generation gradually let certain things slip and get onto the Internet, and the younger generation never really learned the restraint that should be applied to certain things rather than others. However, I imagine that these kids are much more attuned into “what should go on the Internet” and “what should not go on the Internet” than I give them credit for. They’ve seen things happen to their friends when something gets posted that shouldn’t, likely causing them to think twice about their choices.
Personally, I’ve always held the view that whatever I post on the Internet is viewable by The World At Large. Anything I post on Facebook (and there are quite a few politics-based links I post up there…my views are pretty clear…) can be seen by practically anyone. Anything on this blog can be seen by absolutely anyone. Any future job prospects that I have will likely go a quick Google search on my name and this blog will be the first thing that comes up. They can go back almost 6 years and read all about me, my family and what I’ve been up to. Am I proud of all of it? Not necessarily, but I also don’t hide from it. That information is representative of who I was and who I am today. If you want a snapshot of Andy Linsenbardt and all he’s about, this is where to find it. Freely available and open for all to see.
This is also how I view information in general. Sure, we have an inclination to hide things, but more often than not, we’re trying to hide things that we’re embarrassed about. I plan on teaching Meg and her siblings someday that the Internet is a very useful tool, but anything you post on it can be viewed at any time. If you don’t want anyone to see a certain picture of you drinking while you’re underage, don’t put it online. Someone will find it. Even if you delete it, it’s saved on a server somewhere that someone can get. Anything that could potentially embarrass you should stay far away from the Internet. Really, though, you just shouldn’t actually do things that could potentially embarrass you someday, but that’s another matter…
No matter what generation you come from, “honesty is the best policy” still applies to you. Everyone is entitled to secrets, but there are some things that may as well be out in the open, freely accessible, so that others know more about how and how to deal with you. It ends up saving time in the “getting to know you” stage. You think about better strategies when dealing with others when you know more about them. Sure, you learn how to take advantage of them as well, but hopefully this kind of openness spreads the naivety pretty thin.
Which brings us back to the Wikileaks deal from last year. A lot of people were concerned that this information could hurt America’s standing in the world, and hurt our relationships with other nations. Information that the United States was hiding was perceived as something to be embarrassed about, even if, at first glance, that information was innocuous. In the end, the complaint that this leak somehow disrupted the fabric of space-time and all is lost is moot: if you really didn’t want that information out, then you should have classified it differently.
However, the larger point is this: perhaps most of that information should have been out in the open anyway. Much as reading this blog gives the reader some extra insight into me, perhaps a lot of that information provides extra insight into the world we inhabit and the cultures we interact with.
And I don’t see a problem with that.