Privacy Today

Whether we want to believe it or not, concepts from “Big Brother” exist today. Throughout the beginning of the book, the reader, as well as Winston doubted the actual existence of Big Brother in human form. Some of the concepts of “Orwellian” societies exist—especially the privacy concept. Here in the United States we have video cameras as well as cameras in public places. There are certain events and crimes that occur and businesses choose to have video cameras and cameras in order to protect themselves and their business. I could understand these businesses having video cameras and the uses of such devices in a way could help prevent a crime from occurring, such as shoplifting. People know cameras are watching them and therefore may be less likely to steal. Even if someone does commit a crime, the store or business has it on tape. People who commit crimes forfeit others rights to privacy in the public scene. When you’re in public, it’s pretty much understood that your privacy is somewhat restricted. There are other people around you that can see and hear what you do and there may even be cameras and video cameras in public. I think once you are in public, you are accepting the limitations of your privacy. 

As time goes by, I feel as if our right to privacy gets smaller and smaller. After our class the other day, I left thinking how scary it is that people can look up information about individuals on the internet, such as their number. This leads me to Google Maps. I think it is strange how you can enter an address on this website and a satellite view of the location is shown. Do you think this is an invasion of privacy? If you think that is bad, what about the website our classmate talked about the other day that essentially tells you really private information? In my opinion, why is it any of the public’s business? Who ever thought to find all this information and to make a website revealing this personal information? ….And then to think that you can pay a dollar or two more to get even more information. Some people don’t even know that they are on the website and their “private” information is out there for the whole world to read. 

Something else I wanted to bring up was Facebook. I’m sure almost all of us have a Facebook. Some people, for what reason I am dumbfounded, post everything anyone would ever want to know about them. For example, some people have their cell phone numbers posted on their profile page. Why would you want everyone on Facebook access to your number? I personally have a Facebook… however, I have everything blocked. People that are not my friend cannot view my page or information about me. Even those who are my friend cannot even access my tagged photographs. Also, many businesses check applicants Facebook pages to see if there is anything that will embarrass the company. Not only businesses check employees Facebook pages, but student athletes' pages are also checked. Honestly, I don’t think it’s the whole worlds business to see exactly what you have been doing in your life. I have my Facebook simply to communicate with my friends. Period. They have made privacy settings for a reason—use them if you don’t want strangers to know your whole life stories!

Despite the invasions of privacies I talked about, we do still have some that exist. For instance, once you go into your house, you enter a realm of privacy. Unlike the book, we do not have someone constantly watching us, such as a telescreen. We are allowed to talk to one another about anything we want to talk about. We have the right to talk about our viewpoints and have the right to protest something when we agree. We still have a lot of freedoms that other people and countries do not hold. I am taking a Communication Law class currently the chapter we have been covering this past week is about invasion of privacy. Someone in my class, from Austria said in their country there are cameras everywhere! The student even said that there is one in every home. I found this shocking and a complete invasion of privacy. I bet if that was mandated in our country, everyone would be protesting! 

When it comes to the question asking if we are willing to give up our basic freedoms in order to feel “safe,” the answer you will receive depends on the person you ask. Yesterday in class when we did the activity towards the end proved my point. There were some people that said they are NOT willing to give up any freedom. Personally, I am willing to give up some of my basic freedoms in order to feel safe and secure. For example, I have no problem going through customs at the airport in order to assure not only my security, but everyone else as well. I also believe that our society has driven us to be “okay” with giving up some of our freedoms in order to feel safe. Certain events occur, such as 9/11 that makes us “okay” with stricter security in order to feel safe. Fifty years ago we didn’t have to worry about half the things we worry about today.

My Feed

The concept of the feed has some really unique characteristics. One concept in particular is how one can receive advertisements through their feeds. Advertisements sent to the feed can also be a bad thing. In my opinion, it would be beneficial to the person with the feed if advertisements that interested them popped up in their feed. If I had a feed, some advertisements that would pop up are as follows…

1. Nike

I really like Nike shoes and cleats. Nike makes really durable shoe products that last long. Since I play soccer on a regular basis, I go through a couple pairs of cleats a year and I always buy Nikes. I enjoy the way they fit and the lightweight of their products. Not only limited to shoes and cleats, Nike makes many other products—such as shorts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, sports bras, socks, etc. I am also a shopper of these other products. Nike products are somewhat expensive and therefore, it would be really beneficial to know when their products are on sale. 

2. Target 

Target has a wide variety of products. Target is one of my favorite stores and they always have great deals! It is much more organized and clean than Walmart. I really enjoy the plunder of products available and they always have really cute clothing and shoes. Since Target has a lot to offer (clothes, shoes, jewelry, household goods, grocery items, bathroom products, etc.), many people shop there. They also have a lot of cute home goods for decorating houses. Knowing the deals that Target offers would give me a reason to go and shop!

3. Clothing Stores

Of course all girls enjoy to shop—including myself! Some of my favorite stores are American Eagle, Express, and Forever 21. I don’t have time for a job while I go to school and play a sport so of course I don’t have as much money as I would like. This is where the feed would be helpful! As soon as a big sale started, the feed would inform me and could go to the mall. Clothes these days aren’t cheap and many people, including myself, jump at the sight of a sale.

4. TV Shows/Movies

-I am a huge sucker for movies and TV shows. On a weekly basis, I watch Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights, Gossip Girl on Monday nights, Jersey Shore on Thursday nights, and the different CSI’s (the original, Miami, and NY) on different nights. In addition to TV shows, I love relaxing and watching a movie. Going to see a movie in theaters is pretty expensive these days. It is also a pain to look up movie times. It would be really cool if the feed, with the knowledge of the previous movies you have seen made suggestions for new movies. In addition, it would be even cooler if the different times the movie is showing in different movie theaters. 

There are many other things I could see popping up on my feed, but above are just a few. I would enjoy the feed for one reason—SALES! For any other reason, I’m not sure I would enjoy the feed. The whole concept is pretty scary… advertisements and news pop up in your head. Also, people mchat through their feed. I have a problem with mchatting. I thought it was really strange that within the entire book people would mchat each other when they were together. When Titus and Violet were in a fight towards the end, they wouldn’t talk to each other in person even though they were sitting right next to each other in the upcar. It was almost as if they were too afraid to speak to each other face-to-face and somehow talking through the mchat was easier. But to tie it all back together, the concept of the feed is an interesting concept and there are both pros and cons to this “necessary” piece of technology. 

abandoning life as we KNOW it...?

I really like the quote mentioned in the blog heading... “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.” It takes a lot to abandon one’s lifestyle they have developed. Thoreau just gave up his lifestyle to go into the woods and to practice a more simplistic lifestyle. He wanted to experience nature and forget about all the possessions in his life. I really admire him for doing so. In reality, at least today, I believe many people would have an issue with giving up the life they know to go live in a cabin in the woods. They wouldn’t know what to do without their iPod, Blackberry, laptops, Facebook of course, TVs, etc. How would be spend our time in the cabin without our worldly possessions that our part of us? Personally, I think I could live without these possessions, by myself in the cabin for about a week and then call it quits. When it comes to giving up all of my worldly possessions however, I do not believe I would be able to live a life of solitude for a year in a secluded wood. 

The problem with society today is that we don’t know what to do in the middle of the woods—us against nature. We have forgotten how to embrace nature. In our spare time, most people would rather watch a movie than go for a hike in the woods. Once again, we are going back to the idea that we love our technologies. I think part of our problem and our attachments with our technological possessions is that we grew up with them. There were TVs when we were younger, there was Internet, there were cell phones, etc. The previous generations really didn’t have much of the technologies we had growing up. They did other things to preoccupy their time… not the things we typically do. We are so dependent on our technology and it is something we do NOT want to give up or sacrifice. What would happen to the characters in Feed if they had to give up their technology aka their feeds? 

When the extra credit opportunity rose, some people believed that they could spend a whole week without technology. I’m not trying to be a pessimist, but I doubt that everyone that is signed up for the extra credit will be able to last the whole week without slipping. Personally, I think I could only last a few days... I talk to my mom twice a day, talk to my boyfriend throughout the day, eventually Skype with him at night, watch TV while I eat dinner, use the internet for homework, checking email, and of course Facebook. Of course I text throughout the day as well. I depend on technology as sad as it sounds. Don’t get me wrong, I really do love nature and all, but do I love our technologies more? 

Another quote I really liked was also from Thoreau. “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.” This is so true. We need to get out of our technological driven lifestyles. When having the discussion in class, we were asked how many of us use our cell phones to wake up in the morning. I, of course rose my hand, as well as about half of our class. Guilty as charged. None of us just wake up to the sunlight. This just goes to show we even depend on technology to wake ourselves in the morning. After reflecting once we read the Thoreau and Emerson quotes, I really thought about what they had to say. I want to make changes in my life. I want to lead a more simplistic lifestyle. But with our current society and the worldly possessions, is that even possibly anymore?

Dumbest Generation????

To start off, I have never heard of our generation being referred to as “the dumbest generation” and quite frankly I am offended. I do realize that our generation does not know some of the basic historical information that someone should be knowledgeable about. Bauerlein makes it seem as if our generation knows nothing! Although we do not know some of the things we should know, it doesn’t make us dumb. Our generation has grown up entirely different than many others. We grew up having televisions, cell phones, the internet, etc. They are things that we couldn’t imagine our lives without. However, the generations before us didn’t grow up with some of the same technological advances. Just because we enjoy watching TV, using the internet, talking on the phone and texting, doesn’t mean that we have ignored all else in our lives. We are still “just as smart and motivated as ever” (Bauerlein). I also don’t think it was fair for him to generalize our generation as a whole. There may be some people that may fit the standard as being “dumb” or others that have an average intelligence, but there are also those within our generation who have advanced intelligences. 

After taking the “quiz” today, I do believe that there is a sense of reality that can be taken from Bauerlein. I recognize that our generation may not know the most important things, but we are intelligent in other ways. For example, I scored a 4.5 (I got one part of a two part question right) in part one and a 2 in part two. I know… that is quite embarrassing! I knew more about present day culture and things you would find in the media than in the more historical questions presented in part two. I don’t really keep up with current events and if I did maybe I would have known more of the answers. The rest of the questions come from the past. I take some responsibility, but I also place some of the blame on teachers. Kayla already posted this quote in her blog, but I really feel as if it captures the essence of what I am trying to say. “Fair enough, but we suspect that if young people don’t know the Bill of Rights or the import of old COLORED ENTRANCE signs—and they absolutely should—it reflects not stupidity but a failure of the school system and of society (which is run by grown-ups) to require them to know it” (Bauerlein). Information that should be learned throughout elementary, middle and high school should be emphasized even after the material is taught. That way, the material will be easier to retain. Some of the information that we “should” know, we may have never learned in school. Different people, schools, and states have different ideas of what students “should know.”

In our group we talked about how easy it is for us to look up the information we do not know. Because we know how easy it is to look up an answer we may not know about, we don’t really actually “learn” the material. We simply read the answer and then when the question comes up again, simply just pull out the laptop and search for the answer online. In the generations before us, they didn’t have the technology to do so. They would have to go to the library and actually read in order to find the answer. I guess that is what makes our generations different. I guess you could say our generation is somewhat “lazy,” but technology has given us a reason to be lazy. 

All in all, I somewhat agree and disagree with what Bauerlein has to say about our generation. Some of the things he says, I take offense to, and other comments he makes good points. I would agree that our society does not know certain things from the past that we should know, but I don’t think that necessarily makes us the “dumbest generation.” There are some things that we are more intelligent with now, than we ever were.