Privacy, Shame and the Anxieties of Identity

Abstract

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Online Shaming and the Right to Privacy

“…The risks of such an environment of perfect remembering were earlier examined by Viktor Mayer-Shonberger, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age [74]. 32 Indeed Lisa Austin frames the process as "social" ( [75], pp. [15][16].…”

“…35 Lisa Austin harnesses this when she argues privacy insulates us from the social pressure of shame. The shame is not about what should or should not be exposed about a person from the viewpoint of society, but rather about that person's core sense of what his or her identity is [75]. 36 Austin talks about it in terms of self-presentation-that we experience shame when how we want to present ourselves to the world is different than how we are being presented and we form a negative judgment from that ( [75], pp.…”

“…10-11). She states, "instead of linking privacy to the protection of things that one "ought" to be ashamed of if exposed, the view defended here links privacy to protection from being seen in ways that one does not wish to be seen" ( [75], p. 12).…”

“…Austin captures the social dynamic of privacy, stating, "[p]rivacy is not best understood as a state of social withdrawal but as a set of norms that enable social interaction" ( [75], p. 55). This outward-looking conception of privacy sees privacy as an enabler in forming connections.…”

Online Shaming and the Right to Privacy

“…. 37 Austin talks about it in terms of self-presentation -that we experience shame when how we want to present ourselves to the world is different than how we are being presented and we form a negative judgment from that ( [71], pp. 10-11).…”