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Is The Idea Of Privacy Just An Illusion?

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At a time when everyone is demanding Right to Privacy as a Fundamental Right, it is important to understand how much do we actually follow the concept of privacy in our day to day life.

Ours is a generation that is obsessed with putting all our information on the social media platforms. We find ourselves juggling between Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, or Twitter. Somehow just one platform is not enough for us to keep our thoughts and ideas across. We are a generation that believes in clicking the photo of food on the table first before eating it. We believe in telling the entire world about our personal life by updating our relationship status on Facebook. We are trying to maintain Snapchat streaks alive and keep a check on the exact time when the other person read our Whatsapp message. We do not understand the concept of boundaries. We like to tell the entire world the place we are visiting, the food we are eating, the dress we are wearing, the song we are listening, the emotions we are feeling, and the list goes on.

There is nothing about our life that we really want to keep private. This paranoia does not stop here. We are equally eager about to know the personal details of someone else’s life too. We are not satisfied till we know all the secrets of our favourite celebrities. We stalk them while trying to capture a moment from their private life. We hide behind bushes and resort to sneaky measures in order to photograph them in their personal moments.

Recently, my sister who is a teacher decided to conduct an examination. She was bombarded with messages from her students throughout the night asking her to clarify their doubts. She finally had to switch off her mobile in order to have a peaceful sleep. Another time I was having a conversation regarding some official work on WhatsApp when an old friend of mine messaged me. I did not have the time to engage in a conversation with him at that moment. Hence, I decided not to reply. However, when he saw that I was online and still chose not to text back, he was deeply offended. Thus we as a generation, have lost the understanding of how to respect someone else’s private space. We expect the other person to cater to our needs immediately, refusing to even have a consideration of their circumstances.

Hence, it is important to ask the question whether there is anything remotely private about our life. Consciously or reluctantly we are becoming a part of a culture where the line between public and private is becoming more and more blurred. Even if we try and resist to it, we are able to succeed at it till a certain point only. When I started fighting this battle, I was quite obstinate and stubborn to not let anyone intrude into my personal space and time. However, I find myself constantly facing failure. It is disheartening to see that one cannot help but succumb to this pressure.

 

Feature Image Credits: Kulzy

Anukriti Mishra
[email protected]

Journalism has been called the “first rough draft of history”. D.U.B may be termed as the first rough draft of DU history. Freedom to Express.

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