4 ms·
I'll give it a shot. Yeah, so you don't give a crap about being tracked everywhere, having your every inclination, desire, thought, intention, or deed recorded.
by titzer 7y ago
I'll give it a shot. Yeah, so you don't give a crap about being tracked everywhere, having your every inclination, desire, thought, intention, or deed recorded. You're fine with them knowing everything about you, about your family, friends, associates, acquaintances, and all their doings and preferences too. But then one day you wake up and you realize that your entire existence is being mined to corral you into corridor of sameness, conformity, and malaise. You don't think anything edgy or dangerous, don't do anything remotely controversial or embarrassing. They mostly track you to monetize your sameness, your complete and utter lack of originality, your total lack of value to them except as cattle to be fed a diet of carrots and sticks; ads and special offers. You don't mind the digital eyes stalking you everywhere from the shadows. You don't mind having your complete existence watched over for--for now, seemingly innocuous if slightly annoying cajoling to buy more crap.
But you live a charmed life without imagination. Without dangerous ideas. Who wouldn't hurt a soul. To you, your life couldn't possibly matter. To you, you're one of the herd. You like it. Blending right in.
Enjoy your charmed life that complete and utter indifference to the digital dystopia being erected around you, beyond your control. You probably won't do anything edgy or interesting, because you're caught in that loop that they love you to be in. Inured and desensitized, caught in a self-reinforcing loop made by the background of your mind, constructed by your subconscious that knows that you're being watched--all the time.
For your sakes I hope you never stumble on a crime, disagree with prevailing political opinions, or speak up against the powers that be. Or that you look like someone who might. Or are close to someone who might. Better steer clear of sex toys, risky behavior and embarrassing maladies, live your bland existence under the watchful eye of the overlords who seem harmless, if only a little greedy.
Don't live your life any way that makes you unique and don't make yourself a target! Don't bother to use your imagination! Keep your lips off that whistle! And make sure to vote, or not, because who the fuck cares how society treats its citizens, amirite?
And don't bother looking back to the expectation of privacy that just a generation ago, was some kind of normal. To see the governments and power structures that wielded tyranny over people and engaged in genocide, to the documents and bills of rights that were put in place to restrict that tyranny, and how thoroughly founders understood that people just have a right to be free. But lattes!
- thorwasdfasdf 7y agoI think what your saying is that facebook makes it easier for the government to come after you, if you blow a whistle. But, if the gov came after you, i think they'd be able to get you if they really wanted you. And basically, that FB monitoring reduces our willingness to share who we really are (at least the edgy non-conformist stuff) For sex toys and other non-conformist stuff, signout of facebook and use Google in-cognito mode. You don't want that stuff on Facebook anyways.
- titzer 7y agoNo, what I am saying is that we have totally normalized criminal stalking in the digital age. If you think incognito mode is going to save you, I suggest you dig deeper. And turn off your location history and high-accuracy mode! And WiFi! Seriously, you should basically assume your cellphone is a surveillance device, because it is.
- ripsawridge 7y agoI like it for sure, but let me take devil's advocate position! :) You've got a value scale telegraphed through your essay: edgy and dangerous is much more what a human should be rather than safe, complacent, comfortable. I think it's something you desire to be/have, and that's fine, but you wouldn't say that unless you felt that this is something far, far away from what you are now. You must feel that you are unimaginative and more of a consumer than a producer. I wouldn't blame you for feeling that way...one of the neat tricks of our system is that we are supposed to individuate deeply (dangerously, rowr!), however every single way to do it is co-opted by some marketing identity. Try going to do some yoga in just ordinary pants not branded as a "lifestyle." If you feel like a non-entity in this way, it's good to have an enemy. A "man" to keep you down. This is the "they" in your essay. And indeed, he runs rampant through all of our thoughts. But in reality, they is you. You participate in this internet economy. You take the "free" things that are offered. What I mean is that this system serves you more than you want to admit: it gives you a reason to fail to find out who you really are. Because, be honest, do you really want to be this edgy and dangerous person you are putting forth as an ideal? Are those people the best dads to their kids, the best wives to their husbands? Isn't there also goodness in the individual who shows up at the median of all these increasingly insidious schemes to harvest data. Maybe, just maybe, this character shows up as so bland and useless because her attention is focused elsewhere. She doesn't care that she's tracked. Her opinions are bland because she doesn't strive to "cut a profile" in a place which would be visible to observers in the system. It could just as well be that true freedom is in that. And further, who is more free: the one caught and victimized by one of these totalitarian webs you describe (and they are scary), or the one who is so savvy about avoiding the webs, the mistakes, the many trip wires that eventually lead to disgrace, prison, whatever. So I have been caught. So what? Was that the purpose of my life? To adroitly avoid the traps of my enemies? I suggest it's possible to not care about them. About what they do every moment. I think life may lie in a completely different direction.