Assignment #1(2) The Watched World Today

Surveillance is a complex thing. It is closely related to many disciplines and technologies. The change in cultural atmosphere and public awareness also has a negligible impact on the development of surveillance.

Under the influence of control culture, parents’ monitoring of their children is also worth pondering. There should be the closest relationship between parents and children. Why do we need to use surveillance means to understand the child’s whereabouts and children’s behavior, rather than the children’s willingness to actively inform parents? Does this show that parent-child relationships are a problem that cannot be ignored today? Indeed, parents often sacrifice a lot of time with their children to provide their children with a better life. Various surveillance technologies have naturally become a convenient way to manage their children. After all, parents cannot always look at their children at all times. In my opinion, the existence of surveillance is necessary, and parents need to consider whether to give up the understanding of the real situation because of the convenience of monitoring.

When talking about the relationship between surveillance and people, I have a question: Is it because of changes in the relationship between people that has led to the emergence of surveillance technology, or whether the emergence of surveillance technology is gradually changing the relationship between people. Recalling the initial feelings about surveillance, the biggest attraction of surveillance to ordinary people is the satisfaction of curiosity. Peeping at privacy through surveillance is a seemingly unethical but exciting activity. Everyone has a curiosity about privacy, such as among friends, couples, fans, and idols. Regardless of the relationship between people, privacy is a mystery. Peeping lenses are also commonly used in film and television works to attract viewers, shorten the distance between the viewer and the work, and enhance the sense of substitution. My thoughts on this issue may be curious at first, but gradually with unusual discoveries, various purposes will be generated, and surveillance will naturally come into being, with various definitions and functions. The development of surveillance technology, such as remote monitoring and big data, is still further changing the relationship between people.

Everyone is a watcher and a watched person, especially in the Internet era, it is easy for people to leave various traces unintentionally. It reminds me of a TV series of Person Of Interest. The beginning of each episode in the series will say: You’ve been watched. Through monitoring and analysis of surveillance cameras, mobile phone calls and other equipment, predicting people who will be threatened by life or Vicious events that need to be prevented. I often wonder if the machine can produce the correct analysis result? POI also mentioned this, it does not provide 100% correct results, and the protagonist sometimes has wrong actions. In real life, there are often situations where people “deceive” the machine/software, such as listening to music software and shopping website pushes. Users deliberately changing their preferences can easily lead to inaccurate data analysis results. In another Japanese drama Fooling the World JP, I found that the protagonist’s monitoring of the target is no longer a variety of software and machines, but people. Anyone who can approach the goal can become their resource. Through the observation and monitoring of these “resources”, information about all aspects of the goal is recorded to facilitate the protagonist to develop an effective action plan.

With the help of social media, the fastest and most effective monitors today are people. When people feel something strange, they can check the monitoring equipment or use mobile phones, cameras, etc. to immediately record it as influential evidence, to immediately expose bad behavior and illegal behaviors, and quickly attract public attention to spread the incident.

Power exists everywhere in surveillance. Those with surveillance rights have the responsibility to ensure security, and those under surveillance have the right to personal privacy. A series of tragic events, such as terrorist attacks, has raised people’s attention to surveillance, and law enforcement agencies have increased the intensity of surveillance, but at the same time, privacy and laws have certain restrictions on surveillance, enabling society to operate stably.