A WIRED SOUP POST BY CHAD SCHOMBER.
What is the psychological impact of total surveillance (360 degree, 24-7, audio, video, phones, computers, GPS, etc.) on ordinary citizens? In a very real sense, we’re in the process of social domestication.
Domestication theory studies the processes by which innovations, especially new technology is ‘tamed’ or appropriated by its users. It’s a social theory highlighting the negotiations, challenges to power and control, even rule-making in our world as technology rapidly evolves. Surveillance is an excellent example. This big brother form of ethnography (the study and systematic recording of human cultures) has changed society’s DNA. We simply accept being watched even after our initial resistance.
In order to make the data collection and interpretation transparent, there’s an attempt to be reflexive. For example, surveillance protects us from bad people. We just sacrifice our privacy in order to feel safe. A small price, right? Then before we know it, surveillance is just common place and privacy is zero. This reflexivity (circular relationships between cause and effect) is a form of control, masked as protection. Welcome to totalitarianism.
// bonus material
Cory Doctorow discusses how Facebook is training us to under-value your privacy.
// extra bonus material
Meet Edward Snowden: NSA PRISM Whistleblower
Wired Soup 