Discussion 6
Over the years, monitoring is everywhere. I’m used to the society with monitoring. Sometimes there may be no sense of security when passing the road without monitoring. To tell you the truth, monitoring plays a very important role in modern society. Under monitoring, people will change their behavior patterns, which gives me the confidence to be protected in modern society. But is that really the case? Monitoring not only protects people’s safety, but also prys into people’s lives. Could we still leave the surveillance? As mentioned in the article, the more intelligent people’s lives are, more data will be collected and more tightly bound by the data network formed by monitoring. Like the question from last week, people’s advanced and convenient life is, to a certain extent, at the expense of privacy. If you want to completely escape monitoring, you will be completely out of the society, and it is still impossible because we also have satellite system to monitor the whole earth at any time. In addition, it also reminds me of what we discussed last week. Our mobile phones are also playing the role of monitoring. Shopping software will selectively advertise according to the content of communication with friends. All kinds of monitoring in people’s daily life, let me feel that we are gradually being monitored and tamed. However, does it correct for us to be monitored?
The five experiments of monitoring and being monitored are very interesting. These experiments skillfully show people’s tolerance of monitoring. It seems that aboveboard monitoring in public places is an acceptable privacy offence, which is more tolerable. But covert surveillance would be unacceptable. In addition, it is interesting that when a store changes role from a monitor to a monitored, it is not used to such a position changing. And it’s strange for people monitor each other as well. This reminds me that monitoring can actually be seen as a power relationship at different levels. We are used to being subordinated to higher levels of power, and when we switch from those who have more power to those who are subordinated, the discomfort is also due to the transfer of power. Wearable devices distribute such monitoring power, but they also aggravate the inequality of power.
The relationship between wearable devices and people is getting closer and closer. Its development direction is the third hand, the third eyes and a more powerful organ of human beings. I like the three features of wearable devices in relation to human beings mentioned in the article: constancy, augmentation, and mediation. They are all for enhancing human capabilities, which is a bit like evolution. Although this is not a natural evolution in the traditional sense, there are similarities and differences. People who can afford to pay can choose to evolve themselves and better adapt to the society, while those who can’t afford these transformations will be gradually eliminated by the society. Wearable devices are cruel in this respect.
