Prywata i prywatność w kulturze polskiej : rekonesans

Abstract

The article is an attempt at looking at the historical background of the category of “privacy” and “self-interest” in the Polish culture. The author suggests that an attitude to what is private and public, ingrained in a traditional moral system and supported by a constituted law, is a basis of many individual and group motivations, choices and behaviours observed nowadays. A part of them is reflected, and sometimes also multiplied in the system of the media communication. However, the specificity of the media, consisting, among others, in searching for sensations and permanent violation of tabooed areas substantially violates a traditional understanding of privacy and makes changes in the social culture on the scale of the experiences of one generation. However, it is impossible to say to what an extent people are mentally and culturally ready for a radical change of the so far existing model of privacy.