The Digital Self
As the gap between our offline and online lives continues to close, traversing the landscape of this new world has become increasingly complex and, too often, perilous. Each Tuesday, The Digital Self will navigate the knotty issues that lurk beneath the glitz of the current age of technology, from government policy that affects the Internet to the ever-evolving definition of personal privacy. Have a topic you’d like to see covered? Shoot over you ideas to acouts@digitaltrends.com, or on Twitter at @AndrewCouts.
Latest Stories
The Digital Self: Thank Edward Snowden (even if you want him in jail)
No matter what you think of Edward Snowden's NSA leak, or sacrificing privacy for safety, we should all thank him for exposing the dangers of putting our lives online.
The Digital Self: Is the Xbox One the latest privacy fiasco, or am I just a crank?
The Xbox One has sparked the latest round of warnings over consumer privacy. But given the lack of negative consequences from data collection so far, are those of us who warn about such perils prophets or cranks?
The Digital Self: Tomorrow’s politicians are ruining their online reputations today
Anthony Weiner was forced to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives after a woman outed his habit of sending penis pictures via Twitter and email. But get ready – he might be the first, but he certainly won't be the last politician who asks us to…
The Digital Self: Yahoo’s Tumblr buy shows how delicate our online lives are
Yahoo's purchase of Tumblr has raised outrage in a good many users of the simple blogging platform. But even those of us without a Tumblr account can learn a thing or two about how vulnerable our digital lives are when we rely on companies to maintain them for…
The Digital Self: Enamored with Glass? Don’t get too comfortable
For the moment, Google Glass may be too dorky to cause many privacy problems. But as soon as we all get used to the conspicuous design, that's when the real trouble begins.
The Digital Self: Our online lives are our ‘real’ lives
For too long, we have misunderstood "the Internet" and "real life" as disconnected realms. They aren't – and believing they are too often has dire consequences. It's time to put the false disconnect between offline and online to rest.
The Digital Self: Covering your eyes won’t keep you safe from online peeping Toms
Online privacy isn't dead, but it is evolving, from an offline world of peeping Toms to an online world of data collectors. Here's what privacy means to most people now – and what we need to do to protect it from falling six feet under.
The Digital Self: We need new rules for citizen reporting on the real-time Web
The rush of the real-time Web got the better of many of us during last week's Boston manhunt. We comment, tweeted, and posted endless amounts of misinformation, which police say impeded their investigation. How do we make sure that never happens again?