An Optimization Process
Traditional views of privacy often imply a monotonic process,to the effect that the more privacy one has the better off one is. I treat privacy as a nonmonotonic process, with departures from some optimum level of interaction in either a “too much” or “too little” direction being unsatisfactory. While the ideal amount of privacy may shift from time to time according to its dialectic feature, deviations from the optimum in either direction are hypothesized to be personally unsatisfactory. This approach integrates the concepts of crowding and social isolation with privacy: Crowding is a deviation from a desired level of interaction in a too much direction, and isolation is a deviation in a too little direction.