There’s been a lot of talk lately about “Identity Theft.” If you believe the ratings-obsessed local newscasts, scallywags are digging through your trash, hacking into your computer files and otherwise doing all that they can to obtain vital information to apply for loans in your name and leave you with a mountain of debt.
It’s a concern you should be aware of, but not something that happens with near the frequency or impact that the plethora of coverage on the subject would lead you to believe. A few elementary precautions will protect you because most banks have put systems in place that will guard the majority of us from this painful experience. Local newscasts continue to beat that drum because it’s sensational, it’s scary and it gets you to watch.
When I was younger, and society was poised on a cliff overlooking the ocean of technology, ready to dive in, the fear of identity theft was of an entirely different nature. In those days, we were afraid of losing our uniqueness; that we would become nothing more than a number to the governing bodies that would rule our lives.
And while the media had us turned to the left needlessly worried about money being drained from our accounts, the future we once feared snuck by on the right.
In college, I recited my social security number more often than I introduced myself by name. When calling the bank, I have my account number coldly read back to me by a generic and unfeeling female voice. In line at the deli, I’m greeted by “now serving 23.” When searching for a job — a large part of who I am as a person — I’m little more than an equation of education plus experience which either equals a number high enough to get the job or not.
Just because it’s 2008 doesn’t mean it’s too late to be 1984.
It’ll take small steps to reverse this trend. One such step is in how we apply for jobs. Instead of posting our résumés on the antiquated job boards and being bought in bulk with other nameless and faceless people, there are new ways in which we can have ours singled out and be purchased by employers interested in who we are as people. We can be unique again, at least in one small way.
Maybe if this catches on, the numbering system will give way back to the fabled times when your name was all that defined you.
