There’s a rising stir among users of the Web, regarding cookies and whether they are violating our privacy. I just finished reading a piece in the WSJ today taking the same old tired position we’ve heard again and again:
We’ve been told that cookies are actually not a bad thing, after all, they enable advertisers to target ads. I agree that is their main purpose. Whether or not that is a bad thing is another matter. What if I don’t want advertisements? What if most people, like me, are sick and tired of the sing song “BUY, BUY MORE, BUY NOW!!!” droning pitch of every slick, glitsy, unmemorable commercial with which we are deluged each day?
I don’t like being endlessly pressured to buy stuff. What if we consider the impossible for a moment? What if getting more stuff is not where its at? What if, just maybe, life is something a little bit more– more rich, more complex, more rewarding? When are we going to develop some backbone and start questioning what the consummer culture keeps trying to shove down our throats?
- I am who I am by my own decision. I could care less what some corporate suck-up says about what car I drive, games I play, books I read, movies I see, or clothes I wear.
- I want what I want because I decide I need or want it. I decide it, based on #1.
- The more clutter you have in your life the more unlikely it is you will ever find out what– and who– you really enjoy and need.
Its time to start saying no. No to cookies for “targeted ads”. Who cares? We’ll loose the free web you say? OK, maybe thats not a bad thing. Nobody ever said everything on the web is worthwhile. Let’s get rid of the garbage and find out what is really valuable. Maybe we will have to pay a fee for it, just like ad free cable tv– maybe that’s what has to happen to save the web from becoming the garbage heap of useless information, mind boggling consummerism it has already become.
News flash: The Web is not the greatest thing that ever happened to mankind. It is a passive magnifying lens that takes all that’s worst in our nature– and best– and puts it out there to churn, now on a global scale. Its time to start caring about the Web if we are going to ever realize any good from it in the long run.
No one ever sets out to destroy something good like privacy– Not even low lifes like the consumption dealers. Nobody means any harm– in the beggining. But we all know bad things happen frequently, predictably, and with utter certainty. Cookies leading to a loss of privacy? You can bet on it.
