SAT Practice Essay (25 minutes given)

UPDATE: Received a score of 5 out of 6.

Question: "Nowadays nothing is private: our culture has become too confessional and self-expressive. People think that to hide one’s thoughts or feelings is to pretend not to have those thoughts or feelings. They assume that honesty requires one to express every inclination and impulse."
Adapted from J. David Velleman, "The Genesis of Shame"

Should people make more of an effort to keep some things private? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.


Essay Response:The amount of transparency a person chooses to allow themselves varies from person to person, but in recent times this amount has increased on average. The internet has become the most convenient, accessible and permissive medium available to us, and the result of this is that it has spawned a generation of people who feel the need to express every minute detail of their being and share it with the rest of the world. In my own experience, people tend to retain a respectable level of privacy when interacting with others face to face. However, the metaphorical wall between individuals tends to crumble in the false sense of anonymity on the internet.

Nowadays people live in the fear of being inaccurately judged; hence the need to update even the minutest of details about their lives, in the hopes that the rest of the world will have a clear idea of 'who they really are'. This, in my opinion, fosters self-indulgent and narcissistic mindsets. Online experience is easily tailored to individuals, making the internet essentially 'all about you'. The ease at which we share our lives with others, and view the lives of others', builds a sense of self-importance and the illusion that the rest of the world actually wants to know what you had for breakfast. The repercussions of such effects means a world run by self-centered individuals who would shamelessly expose the most intimate parts of their lives to the rest of the world, yet cower in the face of revealing such things to anyone in face to face.

Also at stake in the lack of self-imposed privacy and prudence is security. To plaster your life story on public space is to compromise your safety. Given that it is possible for any potential criminal to deduce much of a person's life from a stack of their grocery receipts, the job would be immensely simplified if all this information (and more) were handed over on a silver platter. A silver platter with Facebook and Twitter logos on it.

To conclude, it is generally unwise to expose your entire life and every thought to billions of people you don't know. To do so is to strut around the world stark naked - most people don't want to see it, and the ones that do are sharpening their throwing knives and celebrating your vulnerability.