Privacy vs. Entertainment

There's no doubt that the People of Walmart and People of the CTA pages are funny and entertaining. Some of the posts on them are just so out there and ridiculous, you almost feel as if they need to be shared. But as we scroll through the various hilarious images, we often forget that these are actual people that are being made fun of, not some distant fictional characters. So that raises the question of whether sites like this are ethical or not. On pure instinct, you want to say "Yeah, it's totally fine because it's funny. This is for entertainment; it's not hurting anyone directly." However, if any one of those people found themselves on there, there's a very big chance they might not see it that way. They'd essentially feel hurt or embarrassed, and if their name somehow got connected to the image, it would haunt them for what seems like forever, considering the Internet doesn't really "forget" things. And taking their picture and posting it online without their consent is on some level a breach of their privacy. Yes, they were out in public and agreed to display themselves like that, yet, they really only gave consent to the patrons around them to view them like that. It would seem wise to ask people for their consent before posting their image on the Internet, but that would completely dismantle sites like People of Walmart or the CTA since I highly doubt many of those people would agree to it. It's alarming to see our willingness to forgo privacy for the sake of entertainment.

Another example of disregarding privacy for entertainment is the scenario of the guy live-tweeting his neighbors' breakup. While hilarious and fun to read, that's definitely an invasion of privacy. Yes, they were on the roof and out in the open, but they never expected to have their entire conversation broadcasted to the world. Had they found the tweets, I doubt they'd be happy about it. Live-tweeting normal, everyday interactions has become a bit of an Internet phenomenon. Here is another example of this fad. Colton Haynes, an actor and model, live-tweets a date gone awry:

While entertaining, this act of publicizing people's conversations leaves a bit of a sour taste in people's mouths. Haynes even writes "I'm a terrible person but..." signifying that he knows that on some level this isn't right, but for the sake of entertainment, he's going to ignore that pesky little thought. I'll admit I've done similar things—tweeting about the random people I see out and about or things I hear while in public. I've done it and other people do it for the sake of entertainment. We forget that there are real people behind the ridiculousness, and we disregard it because "it's funny" or "it'll get retweets/favorites." It's not a good thing, but it's not something that's going to go away. We're distancing ourselves more and more from humanistic qualities for a few good laughs.