Essay Sample: Importance of Privacy in Modern Life

Privacy is the key to who you are.  It is what we need to safely close our life from other people.  Privacy allows us  to determine who we are and who we want to be. Many people believe that there is no thing such as privacy. As it is deemed by some a thing of the past. Without privacy, we feel uncontrollable because it is something we yearn for. Although we are social animals because we feel the need to express and share our thoughts and experiences. Whether it's your valued memories, stories, actions, bodies, belonging, or whatever you wish to keep private is very important.  In our day and age technology has been threatening our privacy in many ways. Our every move on the intranet is constantly being tracked. Even personal media of any sort can still be accessed. Privacy is a basic human right to control your personal information and what or who knows what about you. Thes sense of control of your identity helps you set what is and is not acceptable actions of other people.  Which is how we in ways take control of how people can affect our lives. Some people argue that if you aren't hiding anything or doing anything then why would you care about your privacy being invaded. The importance of privacy is rooted in feelings of being safe, concealed, and maintaining social boundaries.

Throughout our lives, we each have our developed ideas, memories, and experiences. No one in this world knows all your personal information but you. Privacy might be the concept of guarding your personal identity however safety is how you keep that information safe.  Safety is the chest and privacy is the key to it. Even though we are becoming more and more social through the recent two decades due to the connectivity that recent technology gives us. Not everything can be put on the internet. The revolutionary idea of social media and connecting with your loved ones especially set the ground for anything discussed, sent or saved during these interactions to reach anyone at any time as well. Again you still have a choice to what you publicly put for millions to see and what to keep private. Making it easy to use that against you, or paint a picture of you that might affect your life. Even medical bills and documents can be leaked. Many employers now do a digital footprint check when hiring their employees. In fact, “the data of approximately 85,611,528 individuals were exposed by U.S. banking, business, education, government, and medical sectors in 2014”(Identity Theft Resource Center, 2014). The exposure of your information makes you feel vulnerable. For you to feel safe, you must have privacy.  

Everyone has their preference for social groups. Some people feel better off not being around people and some love it. Either way, when you are interacting with a human being you have the control to tell them only what you want them to know in that interaction. You might not even feel comfortable sharing your name.  Feeling the need to be concealed from an individual or group of people is part of privacy. Concealing your personal information protects your privacy both in real life and online. The nature of humans is that we want to feel in control of at the bare minimum ourselves. Feeling concealed is when you are in a controlled state of yourself and your information.

Your social standards of how one should behave, talk, think, and respect your privacy is unique to you. We all need to set social boundaries so we can separate others from us. Setting social boundaries is so necessary to take control of your life. Without these boundaries, you would not have any privacy. It will also make you feel invaded, depleted, and burnout.

As humans, we have natural urges such as wanting to be social or wanting privacy.

Both of these are crucial for the development of you as a human being. However, being social with no privacy will harm you. Privacy is important because it is made up of, feeling safe, concealed, and setting social boundaries.