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Love and Hate in the Era of Surveillance: | 4 comments

[new] normal? (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#2)
by paullloydsargent (enolagrey@hotmail.com) on Fri Jan 23rd, 2004 at 10:00:08 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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In the mid-90's I lived with my aunt and her three boys (13, 15, and 17 at the time). Like so many boys that age, they were disturbing to watch, as they treated friends, family, possessions and all around them equally poorly. At one point, my aunt lost her Internet service due to some combination of the three (never found out who exactly) harassing people via email, chat rooms, etc. The flood of pornography my aunt received after they'd discovered cyberspace was astounding. The boys' real life actions and on-line actions were quite parallel, despite all of my aunt's efforts to get them to engage in more positive behavior. What struck me most as I observed them was the way in which they handled relationships via telecommunications. I remember being 12 or so and having "phone friends," or brief crushes that amounted to little more than a lot of phone time together. But it was amazing to see the boys meet, correspond with, even "date" girls totally by phone and computer. They would IM and/or talk on the phone, usually while watching TV all night, and even have tumultuous breakups with a person whom they'd never met in person! A friend of mine just told me of a couple she knows who had a "whole relationship, including the breakup through SMS," so this is hardly limited to teenagers.

Your question as to how people are adapting to being in two places at once reminds me of how often I am startled by people speaking into hands-free cellular devices. Just tonight I had the good fortune to hear one side of an entirely personal conversation while standing in line at the grocery store. There seems to be something both painfully unnatural and possibly liberating--in a Deleuzian way--to be that person yapping into a dangling wire as you check your fresh fruit for bruises. It's as if everyone were allowed to be a performance artist for a few hours a day. Obviously, that isn't what is really going on, but if I have to endure all that chatter around me, the least I can do is imagine everyone as part of some sort of giant Dadaist collective! A friend of mine (who has forgone her landline) is quite annoyed by my refusal to get a cell phone because, as she often suggests when I am running late and can't call to warn her, cell phones have created a new sense of etiquette. Though I may still find it rude to get a call from someone killing time on the train, she argues that not being able to reach me, especially when one or the other of us is late, lost, etc, trumps my petty quibble.

As for "constant surveillance," I guess, like in recent cell phone ads where the camera component is touted as a way for Dad to track his budding teen girl, it really is just "normal." I found it interesting watching NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre on TV tonight argue for the destruction of gun-purchase background-check information within 24 hours after a sale (a provision being tacked onto the Omnibus Appropriations Bill currently before the Senate). Rather hot and bothered, he demanded to know why the US government should have the right to keep tabs on gun owners any more than they had the right to keep records on bank transactions. Uh, Wayne? Ever hear of a subpoena?
signs, signs, everywhere signs...
[ Parent ]

so-called real life and relationships by Aileen, 01/23/2004 08:46:05 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)
- my so called [real] life: by paullloydsargent, 01/26/2004 09:36:07 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME (none / 0)

Love and Hate in the Era of Surveillance: | 4 comments

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