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Anonymous Lost

Anonymous Lost.   Does anonymity even exist any more?  I prepared a survey for my students on how they are viewing my course so far.  Simple innocuous questions they are.  And it is really anonymous. But will any of them actually believe it is anonymous?  With so much data piracy, scanning, recording, sneaking and peeking these days, the whole concept of anonymous may be vanishing.

This variation on John Milton's (1608-1674), Paradise Lost is simply an update to modern times.  Clearly paradise has been lost, but it may be that anonymity is (going, going) gone as well.  I use to believe I could live under the radar, thinking whatever I said would be too unimportant for anyone to take note of.  But today with big data and unlimited storage, I feel that whatever I write will be scanned or read with an eye to key words - most revealing about the message. Hopefully, I am remain under the radar with my "nobody" status well in tact.

I think the seeds of doubt are well planted and growing.  Is this positive?  Hopefully, I'm just a bit tainted with personal paranoia and/or distrust in our modern institutions. In a stretch, we could say that terrorism has spawned a new form of the same. That is, terrorism from outside our walls has created a counter-terrorism from within.



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