Last week, we featured the website, BlessEveryHome, which tells you the names of your neighbors (apparently by compiling publicly available databases). But some commented that it felt a little creepy seeing all that personal information so … out there. What’s your take? Do you feel that, since these data come from databases which are already public anyway, it’s no big deal? Or do you think it should somehow be restricted to some kind of members-only viewing? Your take? Please click and comment if you have an opinion. Feel free to do so anonymously if you desire.
I experimented with Blesseveryhome and in several ways it sparked my engagement – and encouraged me to deepen my engagement – with my neighbors.
But the overt tracking of specific neighbors on a map did start to feel more targeting than loving to me, and I ended my experiment.
Maybe I overlooked something, but it seems to me that it’s already the case that you can’t see any information (or map) without being a member.
Does this reduce reliance on the Holy Spirit?
I signed up and felt like I suddenly had inside knowledge as to my neighbors and their names. Wouldn’t it be weird if I was like suddenly “Hey George!” when George never told me his name? My wife said this is way too creepy and artificial, so I polled my church via Facebook and so far 5 out of 6 (1 lives in a retirement community where they already know many of these details) said it was WAY creepy.