Try Being Alone in the Digital Age

Being in a large city like Kuala Lumpur, one is seldom alone. Every waking moment of your life is surrounded by people. There were times when I stayed in the office till 10pm hoping for a moment's peace in preparation for a big task, and to my disappointment, even in the steel cage that is the Twin Towers, my solitude was interrupted - by security guards.

So we have to accept that to live in this city, we must accept that we can never be truly alone. Most city-dwellers (de-)evolve by building a wall around them - the 'I don't see you and you don't see me' look. This sheer, non-existent wall is all we can hope to have, we pretend that it's there so that we fulfill our need for privacy. Whether it works or not, is a totally different question.

KL-ites are often irked by the rudeness of people who don't realise that there are others whose feelings they have to take care of. Ringing phones in movie theatres, loud conversations in seminars, and private gossip sessions on the LRT are all part of living in KL. Admittedly, some people have more manners than others, but can we blame those who are impervious to our discomforts? After all, being a polite person is stressful too...

So what happens if we keep our manners, manage our stress, learn to tune out our thoughts so we don't hear about whose friend went out with which Datuk in the LRT or at a cafe. Does that mean that we are entitled to our own private space?

It seems not. Even social recluses who find solace in the electronic world can't stay private. We all know about the power of cookies, the irritatingly long memory of search engines (I have a friend who can't seem to erase her past on Google), and other trails left all over the place, like Instant Messaging archives, online purchasing history, comments in chat groups, old blogs!!!

So maybe we think that private things should stay off the Internet. Communicate by phone... well, we now know that it's not safe either. Technically, telcos can already track a subsciber's proximity, lucky for us that this is not so prevalent in Malaysia. I read this article today that talks about a new encryption mobile phone. Retailing at USD$2270 times 2 (because you need both phones to have an encrypted conversation), it's the best bet you have to have a truly private conversation, given how 'easy' it has become to snoop on other people's mobile phone conversation.

"Interception of GSM calls is illegal in most, if not all, nations, but equipment to sniff and decode phone calls is readily available. GSM spy gear claims to "auto detect," decode and record conversations and "target specific numbers or randomly screen GSM mobile communication." The GSM standard itself includes a limited form of encryption, but Israeli researchers recently discovered a basic flaw in it. "

And we thought we're the only ones who suka jaga tepi kain orang...

p.s. The next time you see someone irritating you with bad behaviour, don't just sit there, do them a favour and discretely tell them that they are being rude. After all, you can't be pissed off with something you didn't do anything about...

Posted by Najah Nasseri at 2003年11月20日 11:54 | TrackBack