The Perry reading for this week was both eye opening, and old news. The research techniques that David Perry describes in his book Ubiquitous Surveillance are rather frightening. “…data miners only need to know information about 1% of users to infer information about the remaining 99%.” I thought that this quote gives the reader great perspective on the vast amount of information available through the use of the internet. Perry also brings up Foucalt’s analysis of Bentham’s panopticon. This was an idea that my pop culture class touched on last semester. A realization that today’s social media network can be viewed as a panoptical tool. Mark Zuckerberg has said “…when you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place, so what we view our role as is giving people that power.” I read this as a description of a panoptical tool. Everybody within the Facebook network can see what others within their network are doing, and react accordingly. I do disagree somewhat with the comments made in Perry’s book. “contemporary surveillance often operates on the condition that you do not know you are being watched. It is our lack of awareness of the extent to which we are surveilled that often serves as one of the strengths of the system.” When it comes to Facebook, we know that people are accessing the information that we put in to the network; because of this we actively participate in image management to portray a profile that we feel is acceptable. I know that I am selective about which activities I choose to post about. No status update about going to see Twilight with my girlfriend, but going to a WVU football game may warrant an update. I found the Perry reading to be both intriguing and worrisome. Technology can offer so much, but always at a cost.