I'm Watching You

It scares the crap out of me that everything is becoming digitalized. Now, in order to get into my dorm, we have to swipe our card instead of using our key. And because we're swiping our card, it means that they can track who comes in, and when. I don't really think they use it for that now, but just the fact that they can scares me. And video cameras...why are there video cameras everywhere? For our safety?

I'm a little (or a lot) paranoid that my life is like the Truman show. Even before I saw the movie, I thought that. In reality, there's probably not some big conspiracy against my life. Or maybe there is. Either way, we all have the capacity and ability to watch and record others almost constantly. There's cameras on almost everyone's cell phone. If we're lucky, our computers have webcams. Video cameras watch us everywhere we go. This is the lovely thing called "surveillance."

Facebook tracks our every move. Google knows everything we search for. Credit card companies know everything we buy, where we bought it, and when. There's countless ways that we are being tracked by machines. And the machines work for ... whoever, I don't know. Each other? The government? Big corporations? Demographics people?

In scholarly terms, this is called "dataveillance," which is surveillance by machines. It kind of creeps me out, that people (or machines) can know so much about me, and even where I'm at. Darn that GPS.

I guess part of it is my fault. I could throw away my cell phone, never use my credit card, and refuse to use the internet. I could move to some exotic island where they've never even heard of anything I'm talking about. Then I wouldn't have to worry about people watching me.

Maybe media tracking devices are not being used against me. Maybe they are. Either way, I don't like it. Going to an exotic island sounds fun anyway.