Jane Denson, 12/3

        Last class' discussion of Foucault and the Panopticon got me thinking about ways we, as citizens, are being surveilled on a daily basis. I feel like it crosses into the conspiracy theory realm, but many seem to believe that we are kept tabs on by the government, mainly through technological helpers (e.g. Alexa, Google Home, Siri, etc.). It is certainly a scary thought and makes sense because advertisers always know what to show us just by listening to what we say. For example, I know people who purposely talked about their favorite soda in the presence of their phone and eventually received ads for said soda product. I think Foucault raises many interesting points surrounding the notion of an invasion of privacy when it comes to surveillance and simultaneously suggests that people fall in line, thus permitting power to function without anyone [physically] being there. Yes, power structures can allow for government officials to protect us from danger, but the question of ethics never disappears from the overarching conversation. Personally, I feel like I am being watched, which does not mix well with my mental health issues. It simply makes feel uneasy knowing that facial recognition is so prominent in our society to extent that we can be tracked and monitored. What is perhaps most horrifying is that Foucault's ideas insinuate that surveillance is insidious, but also acknowledged, yet ignored at the same time. We know we might be getting "spied on," but we continue our normal routines without resistance. Furthermore, pop culture likes to expand upon Foucault's theoretical analysis and make references to his work quite frequently. There is even a television show called Big Brother that acts as the embodiment of Foucault's insights on the matter. Not only that, but it is incredibly common for pop culture, especially film, to display its subjects [obsessively] surveilling their surroundings. Recently, I watched Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) where these notions manifested in some form or another. In Chaplin's film, there was a scene where the factory's corporation president was observed to be flipping through a camera feed of the building where he was monitoring the employees. As for Hitchcock's film, Foucault's thoughts are littered throughout it. With the pandemic still surging across the globe, I wonder how surveillance will continue to factor into people's lives.