Think about the dramatic proliferation of social networking tools for a minute. MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and a multitude of others have sprung to life in the past decade. The amount of personal information made available by these networks varies from the mundane to the intimate to (what some may consider) indecent. Given the incredible adoption rates of these social technologies, it’s not surprising our social behavior is changing at a fundamental level as a result.

At the core of this is the issue of privacy. Privacy is a deeply personal concern that is inextricably tied to who we are — and who we think we are. Some people aren’t comfortable with their real name or image being displayed publicly, while the online activities of others may best be described as exhibitionist.

A recent article by Daniel J. Solove in the September 2008 issue of Scientific American asserts that the idea of privacy itself is defined very differently across various age groups. For what Solove refers to as “Generation Google” (25 and under), privacy is more about accessibility than availability. To this generation, the trouble and time it takes to comb through 65 photos in order to find the one of them drunk at the Christmas party is an acceptable deterrence, and doesn’t merit further security measures.

Solove goes on to discuss the role that reputation plays in our society. How we’re perceived by others affect our careers, our personal relationships and even our financial situation. He makes no predictions as to what this newfound “honesty” will do to our society as a whole, but does discuss how the clash of these two different perceptions of privacy will create a certain social tension in the near future.

For many of us over 25, those perceptions have already shifted dramatically. Ten years ago, I would have gone out of my way to ensure that my phone number was unlisted. Now I have absolutely no problem handing it over to the 255 “friends” I have in my Facebook network.

In 1999, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems said, “You already have zero privacy. Get over it.” Now almost 10 years later, the only way to maintain any sense of privacy may very well be to redefine it.