Rosen's "The Naked Crowd"

In Rosen's essay "The Naked Crowd," he explained the repercussions of the 9/11 Portraits of Grief that were exposed to society via the New York Times.  These pictures portrayed the dead, mangled bodies that were products of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, allowing the entire world to mourn over the tragedy.  However, because little was written to celebrate the life of the deceased individuals, many people became angered by The Portraits of Grief.  They believed that a few hobbies to accompany the picture of their love ones did not do the individual justice. Rosen opens this up to a bigger issue of how our society has become disconnected from each other, with everyone watching each other and making rash judgements. He uses the example of the internet to explain how we have become disconnected and put our "trust" in individuals who carry themselves in a certain way.  Someone may have a good family background, or be a successful business owner, and with no further knowledge about his or her true personality and character, we immediately put our trust in that person based on a good resume.  He talks about the illusion of intimacy, explaining that we talk about our hobbies, families, interests, etc, in order to give the spectator the illusion of a connection, when in reality there is really no intimacy between the two strangers at all.  Rosen then opens this up to the idea of sincerity and authenticity.  Sincerity is the idea that when an individual exposes things about him or her, they are true and "sincere," but not everything that they are feeling has to be exposed.  Authenticity on the other hand is the idea that an individual exposes everything that he or she is feeling at a particular time, revealing their true self.  He concludes his argument by saying that although at times we may think we truely know a person by what we have in common on a public social network, only by sharing personal things face to face are we able to achieve a level of intimacy.