Who is Watching?

When I walk down the street, one of the main things I will find on buildings or telephone poles is a camera. Who is watching this footage? Will this footage ever be used for something? Is my person known and monitored by some secret agent in an office building? Surveillance is something that we need to understand in its proper scope. We don’t know how personal surveillance can go and how it is used/collected. While we may consider the idea that we are being watched as something minuscule, such as a camera at stores whose videotapes are watched to ensure kleptos aren’t running free, a more profound feeling about being watched beats us into submission. Panopticism is very real and very anxiety-inducing because you never know when the things you do will be used against you in any circumstance. For example, when we engage with the news about trending stories that may involve some heinous crime, internet history is one of the primary sources of evidence against the assailant. That seemingly private search on a private browser is portrayed in court to show how the assailant has plotted and planned their crime. We then perceive this as a way to keep ourselves in check so that we may never end up in a situation that digs our characters further into the dirt. As evidence of the crime is shared, we realize how much we are being watched. Corners, alleys, and even random people will catch us in an act, good or bad. It is easy to be tracked whether meant to or not. When piecing all of that together, it is hard not to behave. We want to be perceived as someone unworthy of causing trouble and being put in a predicament where the law is making our person known.