Monitored

By: Beth Alexander

Published On: May 24, 2010

My mother was always my fiercest protector, which came in handy for a shy person. She didn’t hesitate to tell callers I was not there, while she and I (sighing with relief) stood there looking at each other. If I had to pick out one message from the many she tried to impart over the years, the one she repeated most often was, “Someone is always watching you.” She meant this as a cautionary tale to behave, or she’d hear about it. But those were prescient words.

By now, you’ve seen—and been seen by—the red light cameras. Our choices and behavior are checked and monitored at every turn. Amazon recommends books based on your previous purchases. Knock over a Circle K, and your mug is on the news. If we had doormen in Nashville, they’d be snapping your picture, too. Your VIC card or Kroger card keep a record of how much you’re spending on what. I suppose that’s better than the cashier there who greeted me when I was in my 20s with, “Oh, you’re the girl who buys all that beer.” There’s a little something to be said for anonymity, or at least the guise of anonymity. At least he didn’t know my mother.

Recently, my older son remarked, “You know, London is under surveillance all the time.” Where have I been? Evidently, Great Britain spent 400 million pounds over a decade to install 4 million cameras across the country, with one-fourth of those in London. Whether it has deterred crime or helped solve it is a matter of debate. I certainly felt better about the $24 million spent on surveillance cameras installed by Homeland Security when videotape captured a portion of the recent New York Times Square terrorism attempt.

Signs of Big Brother are everywhere. Remember last June when the government made sure we all had new cable boxes before the big national conversion to digital programming? A friend said, “They have to make sure we have television. How else would they brainwash us?”

Now, however, I think the new system was put in place so that we wouldn’t miss the $340 million that is being spent (still!) on Census advertising. It does irritate me to be constantly reminded to do something so simple. Also, the three massive mailings to everyone in the country—the mailing saying we’re going to send you a census form, the form itself and a reminder letter about filling out the census form. Couldn’t we save a ton of money if we did this via email? They’re hiring workers to go out and find the missing households anyway—probably many of the very same households that were difficult to find when new cable boxes were being given out. Just follow those same tracks, Census Guy.

If Great Britain is already under surveillance, faulty though it may be, can segments of the U.S. be far behind? I never thought ads would be sent to our cell phones, but it’s getting there through email marketing. Companies increasingly collect email addresses, and though it feels curmudgeonly to decline in person, I increasingly do.

I’ve been unsubscribing to various services lately, not because I’m not interested, but because the number of hours in the day—and my computer’s capacity—are limited. Thank goodness for third parties, who don’t take this as a personal rejection.

I did inadvertently ask to be unsubscribed from an individual, and got a prompt smack down. “I’m confused,” the return message said, “we had a nice coffee at Starbucks. I thought we were friends.” Or something really close to that effect.

I didn’t think we were breaking up, I just didn’t want non-essential emails. He actually argued with me via email about getting me off his list. Fine, Dude, I’ll just press delete. We aren’t dating—I’ll still take your phone calls.

Just wish my mom was still around to screen them.