Wednesday, November 5, 2014
11/04/14 Smallish Post 4
Unintended internet fame can be a severe threat to privacy; in a mere 12 hours in November of 2014, a regular high school student
from Texas, named Alex, became internet famous; he happened to be
working at a Target where a teenage girl snuck a picture of him. She then posted the picture of him on Twitter and after less
than a day of that original post, he has since gained over half a million "followers" on Twitter, thousands of fake accounts claiming
to be him have been created, he is being tweeted by celebrities, and
his girlfriend is now receiving death threats from girls who want to
date Alex. This situation may seem comical to some, but it imposes a severe
threat on privacy. This internet famous star did not choose fame but it
was pushed on him by a local girl who posted his picture without his consent.
Now, his social media pictures are distributed everywhere, his friends
and family (and girlfriend) are having privacy violations and threats.
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This situation makes me think of why we use the term 'viral' today. Once it starts spreading, you just can't stop it. However, it's a huge statement about our culture that events like this lead to thousands of false internet accounts or death threats. The real threat to our privacy is not the internet; it's others' flagrant disregard of our privacy.
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