Is Shame Obsolete?

In the latest installment of "All Tech Considered," NPR blogger Dave Pell explores one of the most startling questions of the Internet age. "Does the end of privacy also mark the end of shame?"

The rise of social media and the ubiquity of the Internet in people's lives has led several generations of Internet users to throw out traditional notions of privacy. No longer concerned with keeping their personal information personal, millions of people send intimate photos, life stories, biographical information, etc. out into cyberspace without a backward glance.

As we are bombarded by our acquaintances' intimate details and constantly colliding with others' private spheres, Pell argues, we will become so desensitized by "what used to be secretive behavior that almost nothing will seem wildly out of the ordinary."

Pell recalls the shame he felt as a child seeing a classmate in the waiting room of his psychiatrist's office and how he'd kept his therapy secret out of fear of being different even though, the author remarks, most of his friends probably saw shrinks, too. They just didn't know how commonplace it was.

As the concept of "oversharing" fades from view, Pell points out, so too might the concept of shaming disappear under the avalanche of status updates and Twitter feeds.