The blurring divide between the private and not so private

At times even when your mind is brimming with thoughts and ideas, it becomes difficult to put pen to paper or more aptly for the modern times, to work your fingers on the keyboard. The various meditations which have taken hours of your time are so difficult to be put into words.
All your dreams and aspirations and deep soul searching somehow begin to look strangely shallow to your own eyes when expressed. Are some thoughts more beautiful hidden in the labyrinths of your mind? Are some feelings more sensuous, residing in the province of your heart? Is it not in our interest to maintain a divide between what we may truly call personal or private and the not so private parts of our life?

Aren’t we as a society to be accused of over-expression? The most personal of our emotions are out there on display for the world. The World Wide Web has brought easy access to all information, even the information which may be redundant or highly inappropriate at times. People today are washing dirty laundry in public through blogs and media. They are putting their most intimate moments on you-tube and the likes for the entire world to watch.

Have we as civilization become peeping toms, deriving vicarious pleasure from watching/reading about others private life? The rising power of the paparazzi is a proof of the secret pleasure we derive from getting the dirty details of someone else’s life.

What is the reason for this phenomenon? Why is this whirlpool sucking us all in?
Maybe the easy access to the private life of others and the reaction of the society as a whole to it only serves to underline our basic human nature. Once stripped of the veneer that today’s so called civilized world has forced us to accept, we are all the same. Somewhere hidden deep in the recesses of our mind is the mind of the ape man who wandered on earth thousands of years ago. All the basic instincts of the raw animal crouching inside us remain unchanged.

We are all capable of shedding our masks and acting out our base instincts when we know that no one else is watching. Today people are moving a step further and are doing a lot of things in the public arena which till date were reserved for the most private of spaces. Public display of affection is a fast spreading epidemic and so is the indiscriminate use of the www for laying bare the private life of self and others. For the gen Y this phenomenon is fast catching up and is becoming the new magic drug for that ultimate high.

In the name of democracy and more openness we have forgotten the reverence for personal space. The media may be blamed partly for it, but isn’t the media a mere reflection of the society? The mass media be it Television or newspapers and magazines dish out the fare which will garner higher TRPs or sell more copies. Simply put the media serves to us what we are craving for the most.

It is time that we as a society take stock of where we are heading to. It is imperative that we learn to appreciate anew the joys of the moments and memories that are entirely our own and not a part of a public spectacle. We also need to learn to respect the fact that the right to personal space is essential for basic human dignity and no excuse can be valid for trespassing on that space.