Smile for the Camera Wednesday, February 04, 2009 By Caleb Cole - Advertising I love movies. I'm constantly expanding my movie collection thanks to ever-so-wonderful Wal-mart. The thing I love most is watching new movies and finding either inspirational or just kind of neat quotes which I feel apply to my life. The other night I was watching one of my favorites when I heard this little quote, "Internet dude, one man shoots it, the whole world sees it." I have watched this movie a couple times now, but for some reason this time through that little sentence caught my attention. I'm the kind of person who likes his privacy. I enjoy living in a relatively small town where for the most part people seem to mind thier own business. Of course,  there's still a gossip factor and all of that wonderful mess but really it isn't too bad. But that little quote made me think about just how much privacy we DON'T have. Wonderful things like Facebook, cellphones, and, the piece de resistance, Youtube have almost completely wiped out our ability to do something without everyone knowing about it before the day is over. Facebook publishes every time you begin or end a relationship, notifies people of when your birthday is coming up, and even publishes your plans for the weekend; you know the whole, "So and so plans to attend such and such event". I'm convinced in about a month you won't be able to use the restroom without it being posted on Facebook. Then there's cellphones. Anyone can pick up your phone and thumb through texts or calls you've made. I'm also going to get a little bit conspiracy theory on you here but, how much do you think the government monitors what is passed between those things? Finally, Youtube. What can I say except for you can find everything from President Obama's Inauguration speech to a video of a panda sneezing, which I do have to say is fairly comical. On the serious side of things though, anything you do can be recorded anymore, by a video camera, cellphone and even a regular camera. After that happens its as simple as plugging in a few chords and it's posted on the world wide web for anyone to find. Now don't get me wrong I'm not completely against any of these things. I love being able to find music on Youtube or chat with friends on Facebook. I'm also willing to bet there has been somebody somewhere who has been more than a little regretful about a video posted about them on Youtube. All this open information is one of those bitter sweet things in that, you can find anything you want but so can anyone else. This generation will have to deal with the repercussions of this decision, and I really do think there will be conseqeunces. So you might just think about what you're doing when you know the camera's or phones are out and about. There really isn't much option for privacy anymore so make sure you're aware of this little fact and always keep in mind the cameras are probably rolling, and I hope you're smiling for them.

Back to the articles list