The Demise of Privacy in a Private World: From Front Porches to Chat Rooms

From the 1970s onward there has been a consistent increase in not only the value placed on privacy, but the concern with threats to personal privacy. As place is shunned and evaded, interpersonal integration in local community is reduced, accompanied by a retreat into private space and a greater concern with regard to technologically enhanced threats to privacy. Whereas the value placed upon personal privacy has changed over time, so have the media technologies that may protect or invade that privacy. This article argues that the contemporary preoccupation with privacy actually represents the devaluation of publicness and the release from obligation, along with the search for safety.