We hear about it all the time now, someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend reading through the other’s phone or parents searching through their children’s phones and computers. Invading each other’s privacy just because they think even the smallest thing is off.
It’s disturbing that this betrayal of trust has become so common lately rather than letting people talk to each other about it. It’s not that phones and computers are making barriers in communication between people like some try to claim.
Others are using the ease of technology to instead invade on people’s privacy and thus breaking the trust between friends, family, and significant others.
More than nine times out of ten, there is no reason to go through someone’s private messages and writing without their permission. Those are their personal thoughts and messages, and it’s just as bad as reading someone’s journal or diary.
Instead of seeming worried when you go through someone’s text like you might be claiming, you’re stepping on their rights to privacy and you probably aren’t paying attention to a word they are saying.
If someone wants to tell you something, they’ll eventually bring it up with you. Especially if you’re in the situation of a parent and a child. Children are more than likely to try to tell people they trust, specifically their parents, if something is wrong. They’ll bring it up. There’s no need to go snooping because instead of saying you’re concerned, you sending the message that you just want information.
It shows that the person doing the snooping just wants information instead of wanting to talk to the other person. It’s stealing information instead of letting someone tell it willingly.
But it’s doing more than that. Going around someone and just snooping through their things… It is completely ignoring the fact that they’re people. They are not just information. Instead, the person that is having their information sorted through has feelings and emotions that are being violated.
They aren’t going to open a person snooping through their personal thoughts and messages. They’re going to shut down and tell people even less than before. Even worse, people lose their coping mechanisms when someone snoops through their things because then they know that people are invading their personal space.
Instead of opening up, people will shut down when they discover someone has been snooping through their work. They'll stop writing, text, messaging, and just coping in general because they know there isn't anyone they can trust to respect their privacy.
And this isn't something that will last for a short while. People struggle with invasions of privacy their whole lives after someone breaks it in this way once.
The trust of a screen is vital to some people, and no one should break that trust just to gain information.
Don't make someone paranoid to use a computer or a phone because someone broke their trust.
Instead of snooping, just ask someone. That trust doesn't deserve to be broken.
