SMILE SOMEONE IS WATCHING YOU
JEFFERY STOCKMAN
COMPOSITION 101

SMILE SOMEONE IS WATCHING YOU Have you ever had the un-easy feeling someone is watching you? You know the feeling that something just didn’t feel right? Have you ever covered up the eye on your web cam “just because” chances are you were being watched, and in the process you became part of someone’s database, an un-regulated database full of both real time and recorded images. This technology has become very intrusive and borderline illegal. For a wire tap to take place warrants, investigation, and a legitimate reason for surveillance needs to be established. Video has eluded this facet of both ethical and legal exam. People including the government and local municipalities are free to record, post, and edit just about anything, anybody, anytime. Conspiracy theorists say this is by design. Although there is legitimate application of this technology, we have left legitimate and entered intrusive. Cameras and voyeurism have proliferated almost every facet of Americans lives from crime fighting, education, employment, being in public and all the way down to home use. On the plus side when used in context of there original intent cameras and video surveillance have been very beneficial. Video cameras have captured many crimes and resulted in the conviction of very dangerous criminals. “Law enforcement agencies say surveillance cameras have become a valuable crime-fighting weapon, like capturing the infamous Craigslist killer, who was identified on hotel surveillance”(Surveillance, 2012). Again when used in the proper context we can see a great benefit of video surveillance. Without video surveillance this very evil man may have never been caught. “Law enforcement around the world increasingly relies on a growing network of surveillance cameras to help solve crime. But do more cameras mean more protection or a greater risk of our privacy being invaded” (Surveillance, 2012). The implicit justification for the recent push to increase video surveillance is the threat of terrorist attacks. But suicide attackers are clearly not deterred by video cameras and may even be attracted to the television coverage cameras can ensure. Still with this knowledge we move forward with the digitization of America “Surveys show a majority of Americans support an increased use of surveillance cameras in public places” (Surveillance, 2012). Where we are headed with video surveillance is getting a little scary for me personally. It is here to stay and it will grow, I just hope the powers that be, can be trusted to form a system of checks and balances in connection with logic and common sense when it comes to managing the databases created by technology and video surveillance. With shootings across America’s campus’s we now see video cameras at all levels of academic learning all the way down to the high school level. Today’s buses are equipped with some sort of video monitoring equipment. This is done to hold mischievous youth accountable for their actions. In an academic setting the controversy is hot topic amongst students and staff alike. Can a teacher really teach if he feels his every move could and is being watched or recorded? Are student’s better students knowing that yes the camera is on? The students “Big Brother” fears may not be completely off the mark. At a high school in Novi, Michigan, for example, administrators don’t only monitor the cameras themselves they also allow police access to the footage. And public schools in Demarest, New Jersey have gone a step further. In 2007, they began allowing police to monitor live feeds from school security cameras the idea of cameras in classrooms seems foreign to the previous generations.