Megabots Mad Rad Blog

 "Panopticism" from Discipline and Punish I feel like I often forget the organization of power, and how it structures my behavior everyday. Foucault's discussion of panopticism created a strong connection between the organization of power to everyday life. What started out as an illness outbreak in town, the Plague illustrates the shift of people no longer just being punished after misbehaving, but now being monitored to prevent it. Once seen as parts of a house, windows, doors, and streets, became spaces of surveillance. The emphasis was on controlling actions before disorder could even occur, and the idea of visible punishment seemed to disappear. This idea came from the physical design of the Panopticon; a prison designed so that inmates never know when they are being watched. The power lies in the hands of the prisoner's assumption that they could be watched at any point. Roles have switched and now the guard isn't really the one holding the power. This consta...

 "Seeing Ourselves Through Technology" One thing I couldn't look over in this reading is how Rettberg illustrates how seamlessly surveillance has threaded itself into everyday life. She traces surveillance all the way back to when it was used as a tool of social order, such as early identification documents, and how that has turned into something far more invasive with digital technology's rising power. What may appear as simple data collection, quickly turns into a method of control. This ties back to Foucault's idea of panopticism, Rettberg highlights the idea that even if we don't know when or if we are being watched, the possibility of us being monitored shapes our behaviors. Our phones, social media accounts, and even platforms we use for work or school remind us that our actions leave a trace, and that trace can be easily accessed. Rettberg mentions the troubling reality of data rights. Some countries have stronger protections, but in North American user...