"Get out my business"

Howard Rheingold is back, this time with his work The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. In “Introduction,” Rheingold walks us through his first Internet experiences with the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (WELL), Computer Mediated Communication, and virtual communities.

One thing that I found interesting from this writing was the idea of Jeremy Bentham and the Panopticon. In 1785 (according to Wikipedia because if it’s on Wiki it’s reality right?), Bentham proposed the idea of the Panopticon, which was a prison design that would allow a single guard to see every prisoner. The catch was that the prisoners would be unable to tell whether or not they were being watched, which ideally would lead them to act more cautiously, as if they were indeed being watched.

This idea of the Panopticon and surveillance could eventually exist on the Internet. For the time being, there is no “Big Brother” watching Internet users’ every move (not to say there aren’t hackers or anything), but if there were a figure monitoring our online actions, we would likely alter or online tendencies—at least those that are a bit risqué. If we knew we were being watched, we would be more careful as to which content we would browse.

This is not too different than cameras at some stores and restaurants. At smaller shops, many times the owner cannot afford or at least does not wish to pay for a high-end security system. Even by putting up a camera that is not actually turned on, it is likely that some instances of theft or possible robbery could be deterred.

Rheingold introduces this idea of the Panopticon in this piece because it is possible that the Internet could eventually be tarnished by the “prying ears of state.” In a non-threatening way, sites such as Amazon.com and Google are monitoring what we buy or view, providing us with similar products or corresponding advertisements, but hopefully there will never be an issue of government surveillance. What people do online, for the most part, is their own business and the government should not be tampering with that. If the government starts abusing its power, the Internet will be changed for the worse. Although the Internet has its issues and flaws today, it is in a good state and it needs to stay that way.