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Prying Eyes

If you want to read something "controversial" the public library (unless they are zealously banning books) maybe your best bet. It is one of the last remaining escapes from unrelenting digital tracking. It's not surprise that the generation that is most digital native would be the one to most seek escape to the public library. Just because they grew up with always-on tracking does not make it a wanted or desired thing for them. Those of us who grew up pre-internet probably see the library in a very different way. It was our window to the world and depending on where your local library was located, this window could be tiny or ample. Mine was walking distance from my childhood home and I went there a lot - at first accompanied by my mother and then alone. The librarian was a peaceful and friendly soul. We chatted about books and he set aside things he thought I might like. I wrote my recommendations for books in a ledger, where the wishes of readers were dutifully recorded.

Many of my wishes were granted and those books that I had only read about were ready to borrow. That whole experience was personal and intimate as things in very small towns can be. This library was far from any wonderful window to the world but it served as an escape for an awkward tween and teen that felt trapped in her surroundings and yearned to be part of the world beyond what she had seen or known. 

Around the world I am sure there are such narrow vents of light as that library was for me back then. Then there are the more magnificent ones where a person will require multiple lifetimes to read everything that is available. The light through these windows is blinding and glorious. The joy of sitting in a library and reading is greater now than before because the person is safe from prying cyber eyes. No marketing genius can dissect the data to sell this person things that they are most likely to buy. 

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