Pixel Pot "On his soap box as a "Linked In" skeptic!"

Don't eat if you are full, Don't buy it if you have no need for it, Don't join unless you are positive it is right, Don't spill the beans to anyone... and you will be better off.

I was invite to be part of the "Linked In". For reasons pertaining to my education I reluctantly accepted, the department chair had invited me. I have a basic understanding that "Linked In" is a place for business and to be connected can be vital to my success as a photographer. I also know my day is divided into twenty four hours and for everything that is added to my day something must be taken away. My days are full. So the idea of joining "Linked In", clung to me like sweaty jeans on a hot summer day, I was annoyed by it all. 

Many days later I was in the kitchen cooking merrily away, while listening to the radio. The subject of the show was Jefferson and his beloved home Monticello. This engaging NPR show spoke of Jefferson's endless quest to perfect his vision of Monticello. Jefferson was never quite happy and as a result continuous revisions / renovations were ongoing. Eventually the addition of a dome was added, you can see this on a Jefferson nickel. Some historians suspect this dome served more as a panopticon. With this 360 degree view, Jefferson could keep an eye on the activities of the help, in Jefferson's case the help were very expensive slaves. I became curious as to what a panopticon looked like, if you have not hyper linked to the definition of the panopticon allow me to provide a picture. A panopticon was originally designed, to watch prison inmates.

Getting to the point; "The internet today is our modern panopticon and we don't even know it." 

George Orwell was not wrong. Surveillance cameras are now ubiquitous. In this U-tube short the progression of surveillance is outlined with the suggestion that today the fear of discipline has replaced mankind's reverence for ethic and morality. My view is that the the internet is becoming a tool no less invasive than a security camera.

Sites like "Face Book" and "Linked In" record our every touch of a button our personal and psychological profiles become record for "whom ever" and "forever" that is potential for disaster. It has been said throughout  history "that could never happen here", guess again. You only need to study McCarthyism, or profess your faith out loud, (being Jewish in Nazi Germany for example) to see how it could happen here. Today more than ever your underware is on view for the world to see and guilt by association is only a click away. Who here even cares to remember the case of USF professor Sami Al-Arian, his life was left in shambles because of association. My association with "Linked In" is still much to new for me to prove it's worth, I remain a skeptic. One thing that I do know; "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." 
Thank you George Santayana for your enduring words of wisdom.

Mc·Car·thy·ism

noun /məˈkärTHēˌizəm/  McCarthyisms, plural A vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party Any similar practice that endorses the use of unfair allegations and investigations - he practiced McCarthyism long before there was a McCarthy "oh that could never happen here" you wanna bet?