Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now imagine a whole generation socializing under these artificial restrictions. Can you imagine how stifling being raised under an umbrella of constant surveillance by your peer group, family, future employers and advertisers would be to your personality and relationships? We're developing a society of sociopatic egotists.
That assumes that people don't ignore the constant surveillance and largely do whatever they were going to do anyway. Most non-geeks seem to do just that. (Whether that is a good idea is another matter. Also, I still don't like Facebook.)
"Don't Take it Perosnally Babe, it Just Ain't Your Story."
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The driving motivation for the story is that this generation _raised_ on "4chan" and "Facebook" shares deep and intimate things with each other _knowing full well_ that what they're sharing may be under review.
Towards the end it implies that privacy is an antiquated concept; and yet that changes surprisingly little.
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I'm with you; whether it is a good idea or not, I can't say. I'll just wait until it manifests in culture.
That being said: I don't like the implications of getting rid of privacy. Not when society likes to latch on to the most unimportant of biases when making incredibly important decisions. (For e.g: getting turned down for a job offer because of some political, philosophical, or religious rant on your Facebook wall.)
If you're going to hold such things over my head; then I'd rather not share them with you. -- And that (to me) is the essence of privacy.
It's why I like Google+ and Diaspora so much. I think the concept of "Circles" or "Aspects" gives the user a lot of flexibility when it comes to managing their own personal idea of privacy.