Thursday, September 24, 2009

Word Thursday - Private


The old Y!360 used to have a Word Thursday. I even hosted that weekly event for some months. I found it quite informative as it always sent me searching for a new word or seeking the exact definition for a word I thought I knew and certainly used enough.

Today on Facebook I was suddenly overcome with an intense need for privacy. Yes, I know that Facebook privacy is an oxymoron (I will let you go look that one up). But despite the fact that I post four blogs, have a website for my business, a studio open to the public, and have an active Facebook account I am really a very private person. I don't attend high school reunions or trod the old college campas or go tripping through the Internet looking for old friends. This is now and that was then.

Nor am I on all these social networks for the sake of finding new friends especially. I have met some great new people admittedly but I trust slowly. And I find that my friends are almost as private as I am. Today I made a comment on comment on the FB page of a more public friend of mine and was ambushed by one of her friends. I immediately deleted my comment (not because I am wrong but because I was afraid of catching something - cooties maybe) and dashed back to my settings and cranked everything down to friends only so the friend of a friend could not follow me back to my lair.

So my word today is private.

pri⋅vate 

–adjective
1. belonging to some particular person: private property.
2. pertaining to or affecting a particular person or a small group of persons; individual; personal: for your private satisfaction.
3. confined to or intended only for the persons immediately concerned; confidential: a private meeting.
4. personal and not publicly expressed: one's private feelings.
5. not holding public office or employment: private citizens.
6. not of an official or public character: private life.
7. removed from or out of public view or knowledge; secret: private papers.
8. not open or accessible to the general public: a private beach.
9. undertaken individually or personally: private research.
10. without the presence of others; alone.
11. solitary; secluded.
12. preferring privacy; retiring: a very private person.
13. intimate; most personal: private behavior.
14. of, having, or receiving special hospital facilities, privileges, and services, esp. a room of one's own and liberal visiting hours: a private room; a private patient.
15. of lowest military rank.
16. of, pertaining to, or coming from nongovernmental sources: private funding.
–noun
17. a soldier of one of the three lowest enlisted ranks.
18. privates. private parts.
19. in private, not publicly; secretly: The hearing will be conducted in private.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < class="ital-inline">prīvātus private, lit., taken away (from public affairs), special use of ptp. of prīvāre to rob. See deprive, -ate 1


pri⋅vate⋅ly, adverb
pri⋅vate⋅ness, noun


2. singular, particular, peculiar. 10. sequestered, retired.


2. general, public.

All I have to add to this is Yes. That's me really.

Because I am an artist I have a public personna but I am inside an intensely private person.

3 comments:

Bekkieann said...

I am the opposite of you on FB. I have my profile mostly wide open as I want people to be able to find me and decide if they want to interract with me. I do restict some people from viewing information if they prove to be obnoxious. But to me the nature of the social network is openness.

FB and blogs are very different. FB conversation should remain more social less controversial. Blogs invite more in-depth discussion.

Btw, you can't get cooties from just the comments sections of FB. You do need to be careful in some of the more obscure applications, however. Perhaps the most insidious thing going on in the main (safe) parts of FB is the gathering of information by 3rd parties in order to market to us.

Still, I understand the need for privacy. We are each different in that respect.

JBinford-Bell said...

I started with my wide open. And am very wide open on my blogs. But on FB I have gone from welcoming to world to friends of friends and now friends only.

I guess the bottom line here is I have some friends with friends I don't like at all. So do you delete that friend so you can stay friends of friends or shut the door to all but friends?

Multiply taught me to not trust blocking. And I got a real lesson from that site about information sharing.

By cooties I meant that something of that individual's personality would stick to me. UGGGH

The Blog of Bee said...

Oh dear., oh dear, oh dear...........of course, I want to know what happened. I don't like it when my friends are upset by some moron out there.