MEDIA EXPERIMENT: Group #2: SELF SURVEILLED

Part One:
24 Hours: Surveying the surveillance: Friday 04/30/2010
Having a discussion on Friday mornings, I woke up early in the morning to the sounds of my suitemates up and about. As I walk out of my room I am being observed by security cameras in my building, then the security cameras in the bus, the by the other students that are also on their way to class, and then by the security cameras in the building my discussion takes place in. On my way back home, again I am observed by the security cameras in the building as I exit, in the bus, and in my building. Once I am home, I am tracked once I go online to check my email, when I make a phone call to my parents, and receive and reply to some text messages. The rest of the day I am being observed by the security cameras from my building, as well as when I go to the dinning commons.

48 Hours: survey yourself: Saturday 05/01/2010
Since I am living in the dorms with a roommate and 3 other people, I do not have any time “in private” because I am always around one of them, or I am in class, on my way to class, or on my way home from class. Since I take the bus to get to campus, I am also observed on my way to and from classes. The only "private" time I really have is when I use the restroom and when I am in the shower.






Part Two:
a. From this experiment, I realized that the actual “privacy” that we think we have is nonexistent. We are being targeted by all forms of media whether we notice it or not, and sometimes it is through a simple text message or a phone call home.
b. Being in public changed my actions because it made me a lot more self conscious of what I am doing and who is or will be looking at me doing whatever it is that I am doing. This exercise was difficult for me because I was not sure of what I could write about or take pictures of since I was never “in private”.
c. Media plays a role in my sense of a private self by the shows I watch on TV or online, the news articles I read. Media plays a role in my sense of a public self through where I go to eat, how I dress when I exit my room, how I walk and talk to others.