Under constant surveillance

So, I was watching a video(ok, I'll admit it was a reel), where a group of girls had taken a video of another pair of women, older, saying they wanted to grow old together as friends. At first, I smiled and felt how nice it would be to go hang out with my best friend at a cafe when we are in our 60s and 70s. The moment passed and I was wondering how I'd feel if someone took a video of me and my friend from a distance, zoomed in and posted it online, all without taking permission. I do not want to become "content" for someone else. 

Recently there was a photo of a Chinese actress with a yellow, plastic, trash bag and everyone was thrashing a brand for over pricing and selling a simple plastic bag for 1000s of dollars. Then, there was a myth buster where she said the bag was a prop that related to the movie that she was promoting. How quickly we formed our opinions and our prejudices took over our senses! 

Then I think about kids. Small kids, whose lives are now immortalized by the internet. Parents who use kids for social media content, their lives stay on forever. People make mistakes and now any random stranger can take a photo or video and immortalize them for eternity. A school teacher gets the kids to open their lunch boxes and critizes them and their mother(never the father), for bringing food that is not healthy as per her standards. Now the kids, their faces are on video, without their consent or their parents' consent - just to show the righeousness of the teacher ? 

What amuses me is how people are quick to point out flaws in others without ever looking within. None of us are perfect and none of us stay the same for ever. We make mistakes, learn and move on, atleast most of us do. I am so thankful we did not have this rampant social media and ability for just about anyone to take your photo or videos in high definition. Kids today, when they are my age, will be reminded of their silliness, opinions, beliefs as a younger person, which may or may not reflect who they are at that time. 

Now it is even worse with the smart glasses(wearable tech), which can record when you just look at someone. You do not even have to lift your hand up to record or try to do it discreetly through mobile. Our need to record everything is becoming scary. I deflect, but every meeting that I attend is being recorded because no one is in the moment and I am fairly certain no one really goes back to the recording ever! There is just too much content. 

With AI, is it easy to dismiss everything as an AI Genrated photo or video to tarnish someone's image ? I have already seen a lot of people claiming videos showing them doing something they should not be doing and immeditely blaming it on AI. Now it is harder than ever to believe anything we see or hear. Which makes it even more important to know what to filter out of your opinion, how to look out for genuine information. Now with all this known to us, I am more mindful of taking photos or pictures involving strangers, even if it is to highlight some minor wrong doing. No faces. It takes just a video to ruin someone's life and peace. So the question is, "Is it worth it?", and most likely answer is No. So let it be and let people be. 

Until the next video, Happy Reading! 

P.S : CCTVs used for nabbing culprits/criminals/thieves - We need that surveillance !