Surveillance in Society

   Technology is an augury of corruption. With upcoming developments in technology, safety and security are becoming a critical issue. Our privacy is slowly being demolished as technological advances lead us to doubt whether there’s a device recording us somewhere. On the other hand, technology serves as a safety net to capture important potential threats such as robberies or other crimes, more specifically, the Parkland shooting. People who are capable of self-harm or harming others can be discovered before they commit to damaging.     

   Junior Presley Nicely states her opinion on why she believes security cameras are beneficial to society.

   “As surveillance cameras are in public spaces, I do not think it impedes on anyone’s daily activity. If people can see you in public, what would be the problem with cameras seeing you as well? Surveillance footage assists in providing crime evidence or tracking missing people, so I see a lot of good in cameras. With public surveillance, the only time one should worry would be if they were doing something wrong. The greatest benefit is proving innocence or guilt in a scene caught on camera and helping in cases where cameras can catch suspicious activity,” said Nicely.

    The Berkeley City Council voted to strengthen it’s approach to surveillance technology and has reportedly become the first city in the nation to do so. Some might find that invading one’s privacy essentially removes the right to solitude. However, Berkeley City Council guarantees safety as the outcome of offering high technological surveillance equipment to the police force after the unanimous ruling.

   Twitter has become people’s resort to joking about the current state of affairs on the rising development of government supervision––users tweet about their own FBI ‘agent’ staring directly through cameras placed on their phones and laptops. Junior Elsie Jimenez, a daily Twitter user, shares her thoughts on the trending matter.

   “If the FBI is already watching me, so be it, but if I’m pretty much clueless about it now I think I’m just going to be doing everything I do in my daily life. The government probably has some control of getting into some certain devices for suspicious targets, terrorists, and anyone who could be potentially a threat to the government. I feel like some people try and make a joke about the government [supervision] regarding the tension going on. So it’s not really a form of satire, but possibly––just to bring awareness while also poking fun at it,” said Jimenez.

   Soon, the surveillance in our country will be embedded deep within — not only regionally within America, but globally.