Is this Cringe Worthy?

Many users of the internet expect a certain amount of privacy of what they post.  We believe that we can control who sees what we post on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  For some people, the false sense of privacy is enough for people to post things that would harm their reputation.  Some websites like Reddit and Failblog are dedicated to the mass distribution of embarrassing content.  One particular sub Reddit, r/cringe, hosts user created content of posts deemed embarrassing by the users of the subreddit.     

Vaidhyanathan writes in The Googlization of Everything that "When we complain about infringements of privacy, what we really demand is some measure of control over our reputations" (Vaidhyanathan 93).  People have certain expectations when it comes to privacy because they feel that they control the content and who has access to it.  In reality, unless you make the content private , anyone on the internet can have access to it.  With a community like r/cringe dedicated to finding embarrassing content on the internet that most people do not want others to see.  This gives question to what should be considered private on the internet.   Anything that is posted to the to the internet that is deemed public should be able to be viewed by anyone.  People who are concerned with damaging their reputation should not post anything to the internet that they would not want strangers to see.

As the internet grows, sites dedicated to exploiting the ignorance of privacy on the internet will thrive.  People who post content on the internet need to understand that anything that is made public is really public, and can be accessed by anyone.