Letter of the Day: Through a lens, darkly

Editor, Index-Tribune:

There is a generation that thinks nothing of living on camera, posting their mundane lives on Facebook, and tweeting exactly where they are and with whom (“Smile Sonoma: New Website Captures Plaza,” March 10).

This generation knows little about the sweetness of privacy, the sense of going along doing one’s business sans audience. Mr. Flajnik, a former TV reality for-the-moment star is among them.

The Live from Sonoma website brings to mind those thoughtless individuals who command “smile!” at strangers. On the surface, the live stream of Sonomans just doing their business appears entertaining but, at root, it reflects the erosion of what is private. It does not matter that walking on a public street is a public act.

The eye of the camera changes the experience. Big cities have cameras watching, parking meters, and police walking the beat, and someone is always watching. It’s no remedy to claim that faces are not identifiable. I have not been desensitized by life on camera nor have most of us. Live from Sonoma is symptomatic of a societal malady – a failure to value private space, the quiet going-on-being that a camera invades.

Those who’ve lost this cannot understand those who value it and equate a wish for privacy with “something to hide,” confusing being left in peace with some sense of shame – an Orwellian formula.

M.L. Earls, psychoanalyst

Sonoma