Speaking of technology, Jeffrey Rosen's article "The Web Means the End of Forgetting" (in the New York Times--read it here) thoughtfully explores the potential consequences of posting private information on the Internet. He describes one possible method of discouraging people from posting things they will later regret:
"A silly but surprisingly effective alternative might be to have an anthropomorphic icon--a stern version of Microsoft's Mr. Clippy--that could give you a reproachful look before you hit the send button. According to M. Ryan Calo, who runs the consumer-privacy project at Stanford Law School, experimenters studying strategies of 'visceral notice' have found that when people navigate a Web site in the presence of a human-looking online character who seems to be actively following the cursor, they disclose less personal information than people who browse with no character or one who appears not to be paying attention."
And here I always thought that we all came equipped with a humanoid character that follows our every move and makes reproachful faces when we fail to live up to expectations--pretty much all the time, in other words. Doesn't everyone have an internal Mr. Clippy or is it just me? My internal Mr. Clippy has enough reproachful faces to equip a whole host of human beings. I'd be happy to share!
Ooh, Mr. Clippy's getting mad!
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