This misses his point entirely. Sure, everyone in a small town knows each other, but it used to be that when you moved to a NEW small town (or anywhere else for that matter), almost nothing followed you. You could re-invent yourself, move past old failures. Now you have a constant and easily accessible record of your life online, which anyone can look up. There is no space you can go to that people can't easily find records of who you used to be. THAT is a loss of anonymity.
I take your response as "no" to the question if you have lived in a small town.
I grew up in a small town and my Dad knew everybody in the county and the next one, whether they were in town or in the countryside. And likely a couple of generations back. Several families moved to California, and the social network reached there.
A cousin of mine had a brother that fled home. He eventually tracked him down using old shoe leather techniques.
My experience and that of my family does not match this theory of "loss of anonymity."
Now, modern suburbs are more likely to be anonymous, and perhaps that is where this theory comes from, but it does not come from small towns.
Yes... your dad knowing people in the county next door is exactly the same as having your online history available to everyone on the other side of the globe.
