The Work of Being Watched

We discussed the interactive media and the exploitation of self-disclosure. When we connect to many social media sites and interact with many websites on the internet are privacy is no longer under our control. People often claim how no one is private these days on social media but when in fact we are allowing it to happen. Just by joining, signing up or become a member of various sites-such as Facebook- you have to submit personal information. This article brought up the question of "are we the products of Facebook?" Are they are swiftly finding new ways to get data from their customers to exploit them and make a profit? We looked back on Lupton's point in the article we had previously read about the embodied computer user and making sure the users has full knowledge of how it all truly works before using. With the ways of society now a days, we feel almost required to have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc account to keep up. We also connected it to hegemony-the fact that we consent and are willing to give info because we feel obligated. There's no choice but to enter your email, age, gender, phone number address etc. When we don't have a choice, we don't have much choice but to act in a particular way. It becomes an act of discipline. We were also questioned if there would ever be a point when people would ever stand up against it or just continue to stand for it. I think that as long as it doesn't directly harm someone, there will be no stand taken. I think people are more cautious but still act careless. In a way, participation online kills our ability to relate on a personal level. I also found our conversation about the government being behind it all somehow and the idea of a perfect prison interesting. I doubt that we have any worry to truly worry, just to be informed, cautious and not careless when using the internet.