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Oscar Menjivar
Professor Azeem
English 114B
9 May 2015

Final: What Personal Space?

Thanks to smart phones, almost everyone has the internet at their fingertips. Most of
peoples time using this type of technology is spent on social media, and other personal
applications meant for sharing. These sites are used for personal use, with websites such as
Instagram, and Facebook, and in professional settings, such as LinkedIn. In both of these
settings, users put themselves out there for the world to see. Once the information is on the
internet, anyone could see even if they are strangers. Strangers could essentially know, the same
amount of information about someone, as an real life friend would. Even if you sent your profiles
on private, administrators and government organization such as the NSA, can still view your
information, so is it really private? Not all information is personal; some are disposable. If
someone finds out a users favorite color is blue, it is not the end of the world. However, if a
stranger were to find out, all your siblings and relatives from Facebook then that might be a
problem. Personal Space is gradually becoming a thing of the past and almost nonexistent, as it is
becoming easier for websites to share information or gather information on people.
Facebook is a great social media site for people in which you can find new and old
friends. People can do this by just typing the name into the search bar or by finding people that
have the share the same interest. Adding a friend can seem very harmless but it actually opens up
a lot of information to the public that the user has no control over. People that have permissions
to view other users information can do whatever they please with it. One person may see the

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information then send it to a friend, which sends to another friend, and so forth, during all this
the original user may never know that it occurred. If everyone can find out information about
people online what space do they really have?
There is also no way of telling how or when someone is viewing your profile or snooping
through it. If someone has pictures from a vacaiton on Facebook, people can be lurking through
it and finding out about the user without them even knowing. Facebook also has a feature to
include your significant other or family and friends. This not only exposes the owner of the
profile but the people in their life that you might have wanted to have kept personal.
Even if they do not share anything on Facebook, the company still knows what people
have been searching online and recommends ads based on their searches. On the Facebook
business page, they tell the user, Most online advertising relies on cookies to decide which ads
to show on different sites. Facebook is not the only corporation on the internet that does this,
but as it is explained more it sounds more as invasion than innocent. Computer Cookies, are files
stored on a users computer that can be accessed by other clients or servers to lead the user to
finding better results. Again, this all sounds fine, but in actuality they are essentially going
through your computer, viewing all the things that you have been searching for, and showing
users items they might like. The internet corporations sugar coat the fact that they are going
through your computer to gather information about you.
The dystopian novel Feed, by M. T. Anderson illustrates what can possibly the future
with personal space, or the lack of it, and the heavy role technology has on it. People who grew
up with the feed are connected to the internet every minute of their lives and monitored as well.
One can tell that they are monitored by the way the feed recommends items of interest to
purchase, or a key example is when the feed corporation was in Titus dream without him

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knowing. This is not the exact future of society but it is an example of what might become with
it. This is the exact concept happening in the present with the sharing of cookies over the web. If
the feed sees you looking at some shoes, it will recommend items similar to the ones users were
viewing just like Facebook does. Except in feed, it is actual people monitoring you and not a
program as in the present. This prediction made by Anderson is along the line of what is going on
already, so a good assumption can be made, that in the future personal space can be a thing of the
past.
Facebook and other social Medias like it are sites in which a person willingly provides
information, but what about corporations that just take it like the NSA. The National Security
Agency, is a group that gathers information on domestic and foreign territory to protect the
nation. Many have heard the rumors how the NSA always knows where you are, and that is
completely correct. However, the agency explains that it is not interested in everyones data and
does not intentionally collect U.S. location information in bulk in an article by The Washington
Post. So there is no need to fear the NSA, they know exactly where we are every hour of the day
but they said they do not plan to do anything with it. However, how does it feel to know that as
long as you have your cellphone on you, they know where you are? At all times without

consent of the public. There are so many ways for them to track a person with their
cellphone such as the GPS in their phone, whenever the phone has cellular service, and
even when a person connects to Wi-Fi. As of right now, they say that this gathering of
information is lawful, but laws change all the time and topics of national security are the
United States top priority, after its realization of 9/11. If another event were to occur does

that mean they would step up security and start using this information, and claim as
lawful for national security?

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Other parties may say that social media is a choice and if they want to keep their personal
space, they should not make any accounts. However, in the present social media is a way that
people connect to one another since so many people are active on these websites. This is not only
the younger generation, but according to the New York Daily News, Nearly two-thirds of 50-64
year olds and 43 percent of those aged 65+ are now on Facebook. With a wide range of people
on Facebook, people will be trying to find old and new connections with people and making
friends. In this process is sharing information about yourself to strangers over the internet, which
they might share with others. If people decide to not make social media accounts, it will be
extremely hard for them to connect with past friends and new ones, since people will have grown
accustom to using social media. They would have to take a step backwards and put more effort
than they would when just adding them to Facebook. Todays society craves innovation and
efficiency and have no means of going back to its old ways of communication since there is a
superior alternative.
Concerning the NSA, people will argue that they would not access the information unless
it was of high importance. However, the same could be said about air travel in the U.S. before
9/11. Before the attack, passing through customs and security was a breeze and people could see
their family members or friends off at the gates. Not anymore, as the TSA has improved security
and has multiple checkpoints at the airports to secure everyones safety. What is not to say the
same could occur for the NSA and tracking of cellular devices? If there is a threat to the United
States or multiple attacks in the nation, the NSA will most likely step up their surveillance to be
able grant security to the nation. The NSA has the power to invade a users personal information
through technology if they want to.

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With the use of smart phones, personal space has morphed completely. Facebook, and
other social media has made it tremendously easier to share information. Some which should be
better kept to oneself, but with it becoming a social norm, everyone is sharing as much as they
please leaving little to no mystery about a person. Besides people on social media knowing a
stranger, the NSA can detect your every move and have access to your cellphone information just
in case a person might be a threat. With the input of the NSA and social media sharing, the idea
of personal space is dwindling down to nothing.

Works Cited

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Anderson, M.T. "Feed." M.T. Anderson. M.T. Anderson, 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
"Facebook Ads." Facebook for Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
"How the NSA Is Tracking People Right Now ." Washington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

"More Elderly People on Social Media." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.