Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Information Gluttony (or How I Like the Internet)

It's absolutely amazing to me how much information is out there. I was doing a search for a phone number on the White Pages website the other day, and when the number came up, there was an option that, "for just 25 dollars you can have the background of this person checked." It used to be that information was so hard to come by, which is why "knowledge is power," was such a true saying. Now, however, with so much information out there, that "knowledge" is easy to find. Still, I think it's easier to disappear, not harder.
We talk about "Googling" someone. That is to say we go to
Google, put in their name, and wait to see what we find. We've all tried it (even I have) to see what would happen if someone went to look for us. I googled my name as well as my blog a few weeks ago. All of the sites that came up with my name either dealt with me in college, dealt with family members, or were not really me. My blog, however, did come up. I was admittedly shocked. Still, if I decided to move to Paraguay and write from there, no one would really be able to find me. (Though on a creepy side note: if you put in a phone number into the Google search engine, it will give you a name and address. Not cool.)
I used to tell people in college that I would disappear once we graduated (and to date, I talk to only one or two of them). At the time I was single, not really happy, drinking, and felt that the people around me were really immature. I had (and still have) one of those faces that can't really be placed. According to people I meet, I look like a friend back home, or a teacher they had, or some guy they used to date. One friend of mine used to tell me I would make a great terrorist, because people don't really remember me after our first meeting, and no one can place my face. As an excercise in a Psychology class, we were supposed to jot down notes about a person. My partner's page was vague and mostly blank. At the bottom, she wrote, "He looks like everyone else, and he acts like every New Yorker I have ever met." If that's true, then SWEET! There are 8 million people on the island of Manhattan in any given moment (Most don't live there, they are usually passing through, working, or partying). One out of 8,000,000 is pretty hard to pinpoint.
Even now, as a teacher, parents and some students can't really point me out. I have had several conversations with one students' parent, and everytime I see this person, the eyes start looking for my badge to get my name. Hell, even co-workers don't know who I am. At one school, the head of maintenance does not recognize me. Once, when I shaved my beard, he grabbed me and tried to escort me out of the building. Even after I grew my beard back, he still didn't recognize me. Once a week, he would stop me in the hall and ask me, "who are you, and what are you doing here?" I thought it was a joke, but the truth is he never remembers me.
So why do I say you can disappear with all the information out there? Well, for starters how much of the information can you trust? There are so many different websites created by different people that it's hard to tell who you can trust. Just like with newspapers. Some (if not most) have a slant to them. The same can be said with the web. With so much information out there over so many different types of people, it's easy to just blend in and stay off the grid. Don't believe me? Look at the terrorists. It's easier than you think. You want to, say, drop out of Minnesota and disappear from everything? Here's what you can do:
1. Change your cell/ pager/ whatever number. That's right, first step is to get rid of ways to contact you.
2. Get rid of your email address. Change it or get rid of it. Create a new one.
3. Pack only what you really need. You want to leave quickly? Take only the clothes you might need.
4. Have some cash. You're going to be closing any bank accounts you have, it's too easy to be traced that way.
5. (For the Hardcore Change) Change your name. You're going to need some cash and a friend. (I have, unfortunately, seen this done.) Though we are supposedly safer in the new millennium, it's still easy to take a friend's (though in most cases this person is dead) birth certificate and social security card and get a license. If you have those three things, then you can start again.
So think about this the next time someone you know disappears: maybe, just maybe, they didn't want to be found. With all the information a person has out there, society (and the government) don't really want to sift through every little piece.

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