So, I’ve been looking around campus differently in the last few hours, mostly because I wonder about surveillance. Who is watching me? Who is watching you? Why, how, and from where? I made a short video near Wyatt before anyone could catch me talking. I sound crazy. Maybe I am crazy.
Click the screenshot to access the video.
Have you ever wondered who watches all the security footage taken every single second of our lives? I have, at least lately. I mean, why does Peabody need 5 cameras within a 100 square foot radius? I understand the need for safety, but the amount of surveillance seems overwhelming. The difference in perspectives ranges only a few feet. My only explanation is that whoever is doing the recording and whoever is watching, is intensely interested in human behavior. Are they even human at all? Hard to tell in this digital age. All this watching, especially with people looking into their smart phones all day or taking selfies, reminds me of the series Black Mirror.
Image via giphy.com
The characters rely so heavily on technology, they even record memory through devices. People can literally rewatch any moment in their lives with pinpoint accuracy, trumping the psychological ‘detriment’ of the mind as a flexible, biased reporter. There’s this one episode, “White Bear“, where this woman is punished merely through digital surveillance. People track her with their phones silently, just attempting to pin her down via video. A very gaze can be punishment enough. Where can you go to escape being watched in our current obsession with documentation and virality? Nowhere, I don’t think. Nowhere at all. Babies learn how to use iPads before they learn how to use a toilet. Even billboards are digitized, offering a 24-hr onslaught of neon-tinted images. Can you imagine a day without using your phone or carrying it? I’m not sure I remember an entire day where I didn’t check my phone.
Even when I least expect it, the cookies present a problem. Like CCTV cameras, they watch my every move. They know me. Although not physical, cookies want to know what I like to buy, what I like to eat, and what I like to wear. I don’t think cookies or Cookie Monsters want to be visible…in fact, invisibility may mean higher sales. The chilling idea is…where does all the data go? I mean, all the data can’t possibly go to what shoes I like to wear, right? I communicate extensively with friends overseas online, I lesson plan online, I order furniture online, and I even order food online. The internet cookies know me better than some of my friends.
The cookies are watching, but cookies can crumble. So…how do we bring the cookies down? How do we get to the Cookie Monster? Who is consuming all the cookies?
Cookie Crumbs 