Smartmobs blog pointed me to a USA today article about the growing population's acceptance of always being on camera. Just today at dinner, a couple of us were talking about how people are more and more just accepting surveillance as a way of life. The fact that people are using social media tools to quickly publish very personal information could be flipped to say that those same people are more comfortable with surveillance for the sake of preserving whatever it is that needs preserving. Someone at the table told us a story about how he was at a Dunkin Donuts (East Coast style!) recently and was talking to the young man behind he counter, after a couple minutes of conversation the employee gets a call and takes it. He comes back to the counter and tells him that he has to go because his boss told him to stop talking to the customers and to tuck in his shirt. The store manager was sitting at home or perhaps in a central location if he managed multiple stores and monitoring and addressing his employees. It just seemed second nature to the kid behind the counter and he wasn't bothered by it at all.
So we continued talking about how 30 -40 years ago society would never put up with all this surveillance (phone taps!) all the time and we fantasized about a revolution in the streets while we ate our crispy tofu. i sat there at points quietly cause just this week i turned the cameras on myself and i have to admit i liked it. it was fun-real and for a purpose. Where are the Amanda Congdon Rocketboom replacement try-outs?
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