Freedom of Speech: Where has this gotten us?

Pexels

I remember learning government as a subject for art students in my secondary school days. We were taught that one of the rights of a citizen is the freedom of speech, but there was no lesson on the right to privacy. In fact, you may be questioned by the government of your country for hiding some information when required. As stated in the header, “where has this gotten us?” Sometimes excessive exercise of your freedom to say what you like may actually take you somewhere you won’t cherish. Simply put, “where is the freedom in speech?”

IMAGE CREDIT IS MINE

I’ll forever, again and again choose the right to privacy because this is where the true freedom of speech lies. You only say what matters, you don’t have to say much! In fact, one may decide to say nothing and will therefore not get into trouble. On a lighter note, there is freedom to type right? (yeah, I know what libel and slander mean, lol).
I can state several scenarios where silence has actually saved the day and other instances where talking too much has gotten people into trouble. But that is not the focus of my piece. I’ll simply justify why my privacy is more important than limitless speech ability.

I love to write, to chat, and to hold conversations only when necessary, and I can’t cope with not having my “secret place”. During my time at the University, comparing my academic performance while living in a hostel versus when I had my own personal apartment yielded two drastically different results -I performed better in the latter setting. I just love calmness, a time to think, and some activities to carry out alone (e.g., typing this writeup would have been impossible if I was not alone, I only edit amidst crowd but find it hard to think about topics or what to write on when people are all around).

As funny as it may sound, what just crossed my mind is the question of why companies have privacy agreements and nothing on speech. They don’t tell you this is how much you can say about us, but you see a list of items on subjects such as Data Protection, Transparency, User Rights, Business Reputation among others (in case you’re wondering how I got to know all these, I am a content writer cum line editor and I have worked on several Privacy Agreement for companies). If you see any new business establishment about to go into partnership with another business entity, one of the binding forces that validates the new tie is the Privacy document. What does this communicate to us as individuals?

Unsplash

Personally, my advice to people is to talk less and listen more because too much talk sooner or later leads to saying more than is needed. Freedom of speech, sounds like a trap to me, because you get to say as much as you want, but that doesn’t nullify you from getting into trouble. I’m yet to see someone who’s too private (the comment section is wide open to sharing your thoughts). I believe true freedom lies in limiting the information people can access about you. Based on my personal experience, I can confidently say that it gives me control rather than being controlled by what people have heard me say or do in their presence.