Doing these readings about surveillance brought to my mind a scene from one of my favorite movies of all time, Green Street Hooligans, starring Charlie Hunnam and Elijah Wood. These two are walking into a football stadium in London, England, and Hunnam, the leader of what was called a “firm”, or football fanatics’ gang was quick to point out some cameras, and states “Look out, mate. We’re the most watched country in the world.” And this is just a simple example of how in almost any store you walk into, there is video surveillance, and while most have signs saying such things as “Smile, you’re on camera” or something else, some do not. But they are almost always there. Every ATM has a camera in it at the top that takes your picture when you take money out, and your picture is taken every time you go through an EZPass lane.

While these devices are all in place to help the owners of stores or to help reduce crime, something that shouldn’t be done in my opinion is the sharing of our private information over the internet on such sites as Google. I personally have set my social networking sites to private, where you cannot search for me unless we have mutual friends. This isn’t out of paranoia that I won’t get a job after school because of my perceived actions during college or high school, but simply because I prefer my privacy. As was stated in a post earlier, the actions we engage in as young adults, during high school and college, may be seen as illegal, but if you ask a parent or someone older, they will most likely tell you that they did it as well. A story that sticks out in my mind is how my mother’s brother was able to go and sit in a bar when the drinking age was still 18 as a 14 year old and be served, while my mother, who was of age, would be ID’d by the staff and called into question because she looked that much younger. But why is it that these actions, that many of our potential employers probably engaged in, would be called into question for a prospective employee, especially if the work is able to be done properly.