5. Big Brother

One interesting topic tied to technology is surveillance. I first began to think of the topic seriously when I was in London this past fall while I was studying abroad. The driver who picked us up from the airport told us a surprising fact: a person could walk the length of one block and been seen by several hundred cameras. One can view this as either a necessity that protects society, or an invasion of privacy; this is not only local to London, but everywhere in the world. The Patriot Act comes to mind, where the privacy of American citizens has been intruded for the purpose of protection. This method of surveillance carries over into even social networking: corporate businesses are able to view potential clients' Facebooks, Twitter accounts, and so on. One can essentially see this as the end of privacy: even in one's own home they are being watched. Social networks such as Facebook are very public, as people put their real name and information online for others to see. This can lead to identity theft or replication, where one uses the information of a real person and create a duplicate account. These duplicate accounts can be used to slander that person. From government surveillance to online monitoring, the issue of privacy has become a very large one in modern society. Perhaps more security measures can be made for social networks to hide the information of their users, but if someone really wants to break in (and has the necessary skills to do so), they will break in. The government and corporate businesses have countless resources, and all one can do is be careful with how they act in public and what they post online. The internet has opened the world to individuals throughout all the nations, in ways both good and bad. Hopefully the invasion of privacy will never become too great, and people will be able to express themselves online without unwanted attention.