...not that I have been thinking about this too much, but when it does come up it can be quite bothersome. When did privacy become stigmatized as something bad or shameful? (and in posting about this, I know how hypocritical I'm being seeing as how I post some of my private thoughts onto an internet blog for all the world to see) ....and I'm not just talking about internet privacy, though the shenanigans at facebook are ugly reminders of how little we control the privacy of our social networking profiles.
...there is also the privacy issue of sharing information with perfect strangers when our credit cards are stolen or we want to know the balance of our bank accounts which is also a pet peeve of mine. How can we really trust those people on the other end of the line, what safeguards have the businesses who employ them put in place? Background checks? Big deal, I have passed many of those but can sometimes (often) be morally ambiguous in my deeds and activities.
I have also dealt with another privacy issue that I have to admit, bothers me much more than the once previously mentioned. I think once I move back home to the States, this should be a non-issue. It's privacy of home and self. Back home I was very content in the fact that after a hard day or week of work; I could go home, close the door, peel off my clothes, lay in bed, drink wine, watch bad television, read a book, and think little of the encounters or people I had to deal with that day or week.
Not so in Korea or perhaps in the daily life of an ESL teacher in a foreign country. I'm sure those who work in public or university schools have a different experience, but for the most part, socializing with those you work with is ideal. Mostly because we work long hard days and we don't want to venture too far from home. I have made wonderful friendships with past and present coworkers in every job I have worked so I have no complaints there. It just is hard to be around the same people all day, every day.
There is also the conundrum that often, you live in very close proximity to your fellow teachers. My situation may be a bit more unique in that the entire floor of my building is just coworkers. And while I like them all for the most part, it can be quite exhausting when you are expected to answer your phone, answer your door, appease the masses when you just want to shut yourself away from everyone when the work is done.
I adore my alone time and hermit ways and mean no offense to anybody in my life now or previously, but come on...privacy should be a right, not a privilege. So, I greatly look forward to the day when I will be back in an overpriced LA studio, my anonymity rightly restored and I'll only have to shyly smile or nod at the fellow neighbors I know nothing about. This is coming from a generally private city girl who doesn't necessarily want to know your business, either.
So, I just signed up for a Latino dating site because I am utterly ridiculous and I have to admit I have been craving some sort of male attention. Does that mean I will accept ogling of carefully cropped photos of myself by old 40-something Mexicanos on the intrawebs as male attention? You betcha!
I mean, jeez, no man has really paid any kind of real attention to me since I have arrived in Korea last July. So, I got one Korean's number one time and he said he liked my hair, big deal. So I held hands with a male co-worker one drunken night, who cares? So what if at a writer's group night some stand up comedians said I had Bambi eyes, like that matters.
This is not real admiration or devotion, I need someone to evaluate my online profile and deem it worthy enough to send me a grammatically incorrect message equipped with smiley faces and lols. I need someone to send me a "wink" and maybe eventually add me on facebook and comment that I am beautiful. I need someone who will say that when I get back to the States, they want to meet the real-live me...not the uber-enhanced or uber-undisclosed version of me.
I want someone to want me in an online sort of way, intensely and in large quantities. I want more than one admirer, future lover, guesser of my real weight. I want it all and I don't ever want it to enter into reality. I want the fantasy and I want it now.