What if a tiny bird feeder—and a clever squirrel—could reveal how much our world has changed?
I have a bird feeder with a camera attached to it. The camera connects to my iPhone and I can watch the bird eating at the feeder or download their images and share them with others. the birds don’t know that I’m watching them. A neighborhood squirrel has found the feeder. He figured a way to get past the safeguards that the feeder has. I enjoyed watching him figure it out..We are much like the birds who come to my feeder. There are so many security cameras around constantly monitoring us. We don’t pay attention to them because they are placed obtrusively in our environment. Where I use my bird feeder camera for entertainment the security cameras monitor our behavior. It wasn’t this way when I was growing up. There was little need for security cameras. It made me wonder what changed with human beings that we need cameras to monitor our behavior. The world I grew up in is long gone. If someone wants to monitor my behavior I’ll walk around with a smile to brighten their day.
How do you feel about living in a world where cameras are everywhere—does it comfort you, bother you, or simply fade into the background?
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman