Earlier this year, New York magazine published a long piece called "Say Everything." Sub­titled "Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll," the piece breathlessly revealed that about 60 percent of modern American youth already have their biographical details and images online at MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, or similar social-networking websites. New York's reporter made a big deal about how "the kids" made her "feel very, very old." Not only did they casually accept that the record of their lives could be Googled by anyone at any time, but they also tended to think of themselves as having an audience. Some even considered their elders' expectations about privacy to be a weird, old-fogey thing--a narcissistic hang-up.

"So my philosophy is, why hide it?"