Hey y’all-
I took the free online SAT on the Collegeboard website, and am curious about what you guys think about the computer essay grading system. It graded the following essay as an 8:
"A disease of narcissism, perhaps the product of individualism, afflicts the general American population. We inundate one another’s social media feeds with the banal details of our conformist lives. Yet we care greatly about our privacy- which is, in other words, the control we wield over how we are perceived.
I read in the news recently about a teacher who was fired for less-than-innocuous pictures on her Facebook page. Her bosses, the school administrators, had assumed that someone who partied and drank was not the most suitable mentor for children. This phenomena is not uncommon. Companies often run background checks on their employees, easily digging up pictures on Google that some would rather have stayed hidden. Certainly, this is not a bad idea, but the fired and rejected employees disagree. Their private life, they claim, is none of their employer’s business. But these photos are true reflections of who they are, and if they are comfortable with friends knowing them, they should accept that these pictures cannot be private.
When Edward Snowden leaked the secrets of the National Security Agency, shocking Americans with the revelation that the NSA was spying on the great majority of them- listening in to personal calls, reading emails, and the like- people were furious. The government was invading their privacy, they claimed. Yet it is curious how little concern the great majority had for ‘privacy’ before these leaks. Rather, their anger seemed more of a reaction to the realization that their lives were not entirely under their own control; there was a (relatively) greater power looming over their tiny lives- the government.
The greatest dignity is the dignity of silence. It is the sign of internal strength. And the only audience one needs is oneself."
Do you agree with the score? And if possible please share your own experiences. Much thanks.