Blog Post #3

Jorre Delgado

Communications 160

Blog Post #3

“Surveillance, Normalcy and Insanity”

            As I read through chapter 11 in our textbook the terms surveillance, normalcy, and insanity really stood out to me and they all fell under the same section in the book called “Surveillance”. The book defines surveillance as, “a system of observation, often working to discipline a person into behaving in “appropriate” ways”. (p.221)

            To start of the section there is a short story about a boy named Joseph who was interested in a girl so he changed his relationship status on his online profile to say “Single”. Which now a day on Facebook everyone is changing their relationship status and posting random things. But something that Joseph noticed was that when he changed his status the ads on the sidebar also changed and were now showing him dating site or ads. When I read this I thought wow I’m not the only one that noticed that the ads change depending on what you are looking at or liking. One day I realized that all the shopping websites I was looking at and all the products that I had put in my shopping cart were now appearing as ads on my Facebook wall. To me that is very strange and it does make it seem like someone is going through you browsing history. This all goes back to the word surveillance and how even when you think you are doing something private now a day on the internet nothing is private whether you like it or not.

            In this section, a French philosopher named Michel Foucault was mention and he was primarily interest in the relationship between the individual and culture. In the book it states that, “he was concerned with how the individual persons actions are restricted and limited by social norns and ideals”. (p.220) He uses an example that includes the terms normalcy and insanity. I really do agree with the fact that he thinks that calling one person insane and another personal normal all has to do with cultural expectations and how we view that person or group of people. For example, say your friend group comes across a new friend group and you all choose to hang out together and then you realize that they aren’t exactly like you or like you had pictured so instead of trying to understand them instead you just choose to leave and label them weird. This all goes back to what Michel Foucault is saying and how we can’t just call one person crazy and the other not just because they aren’t like us. We need to be open to opening up to other cultures and willing to learn rather than just labeling.

            After Michel Foucault gives us a little background on what he was interested in we then get a little more info and examples that have to do with surveillance. One of the examples given in the book was about a lecture hall. It talks about how even in a regular day at school you are being surveilled. All the students are sitting facing the teacher in small seats with a little desk but the teacher has the ability to walk around the class room to make sure people are listening, taking notes, not on their computers or phones, which even though it may sound like a regular day in class and you don’t view it as being surveilled, you are still being watched by your teacher. Foucault then related the lecture hall to Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon which is a, “perimeter building in the form of a ring, at the center is a tower, pierced by large window openings to the inner face of the ring, the outer building is divided into cells, these cells only have two windows one to see the tower and one for a little day light.” (p.222) When he related these two he’s pretty much suggesting that the greatest form or power is the ability to watch and that it can happen in any situation.

            Overall, I was really interested in this surveillance section because I think as time goes on and technology continues to grow year by year we all need to know that not all things are private and just because they say they are doesn’t mean that someone can’t see it. Like it says in the book, “40% of hiring managers research applicants through social media, and 43% of those managers found material that caused them not to hire that candidate”. (p.223) I know having just got my first real job in the past year that social media is a really big part of your identity even if your profiles are on private things are still out there for people to see. Surveillance is something that happens in our day to day life no matter where we are or what we are doing.