Are we Just Paranoid?

After actually realising just how much we are watched on campus, it is somewhat interesting to see how little people actually know about the amount of surveillance that goes on at school.  It seems to be that preconceived notions of what we are used to is forming our understanding of surveillance wherever we go. 

Going into this project, I completely overestimated the amount of cameras that there actually are.  I do take notice whenever I look up and see cameras around campus, however the opposite is not true.  I never really spent time looking around, trying to find out where cameras are supposed to be.
While Santa Clara may be a very quiet town, and not very prone to crime, it is still interesting to note the psychology that makes us think that there are cameras.

According to my survey, 55% of people had a very strong opinion on the presence of cameras in Benson.  I am going to guess that most of the people that answered “does more harm” or “does more good,” thought that there were a lot more cameras in Benson than in actual fact. I feel that from this evidence, I am able to conclude that people project cameras into places where they actually aren’t, and that they only are reinforced in their beliefs when they do see cameras around campus.

What is also interesting to note, is the overwhelmingly support for the current amount of cameras on campus.  If people are creating their own ideas of what the current state of video surveillance is, and they are supportive of their unrealistic ideas, are they not creating a false sense of security for themselves?

I can most certainly attest to the fact that I have been too trusting in the past, relying on the fact that security cameras are “protecting me.”  Coming from a very small Connecticut town, where residents are concerned about the “13 domestic abuse cases every year” and where car doors are kept open with the keys in the ignition, I have grown up feeling very secure.

This has resulted in some very unhealthy habits, and I think that at school I too have developed a false sense of security.  Just recently I would leave my laptop and mouse sitting out in the media lab while working on a movie project.  I felt that since there was a camera in the room monitoring me it should be fine to go get an iced chai and a snack. Just looking up and seeing a camera instantly made me feel more secure, and made it a lot easier for me to rationalise making a really reckless decision.  I now know that the camera in the media lab does not work, and had my laptop been stolen, I would be out of luck, cause there is a very small chance that I would ever see it again or catch the thief.

So here is the moral of the story: be very wary of how much you actually are being watched.  I thought that I was going to find through this project that I was being watched much more than I should be, but it turns out that instead, I discovered that the real problem is ignorance, and false senses of security created by people when they are surveilled.  I hope that by reading this blog I have made you more aware of your surroundings, and made you more able to appreciate the real meaning of surveillance.