The Rise Of New Media And Its Impact On American Privacy

Living in the information age, people are much closer to Internet and digital technology intheir daily lives. New media takes the Internet and other digital technology as the boomingplatform. Its characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible andinteractive, are connecting daily lives with rapid speed and less limitation.New Media is the defining cultural movement of time, empowering people in constantlyevolving ways. Digital technology provides high speed to approach information. Thevariability and interactivity of new media reduce the distance between person and personand bring new intimacies, which is gradually becoming a threat to American’s traditionprivacy values.The Americans have experienced over400years history in evolution of privacy issues. Theliterature on privacy shows that there are several categories of private information exposedin new media age. Disclosure of information means that traditional privacy values arefacing the challenges from new media. The challenges mainly come from three aspects:new technology, new media’s nature of disclosure of information and the panopticon effect.The Internet is a structure that is inherently similar to the panopticon. Through Internetservice providers can observe their customers’ online activities at any time without thecustomers’ knowledge. With wireless technology, the Internet can be viewed from almostanywhere on the planet.The essay also will talk about current remedies of American laws. The existing laws areinadequate and antiquated and cannot keep pace with new media intrusions. It is necessaryto take strategies and remedies to protect privacy in the information age.The major purpose of this essay is to enhance the general understanding of new media andits threat to privacy to help protecting privacy.