A Civil Liberties website h
ere recently alerted us to the imagination of facebook mandarins, which implies our lives are to be monitored and possibly steered in the future via our social media behaviour. Ironic though that 7,000 facebook users have now ‘liked’ that article onto their own facebook pages. It seems to me that as soon as governments required its citizens to register births, weddings, income (for taxes), deaths, criminal records and desirability to vote then we gave up the right to individual and free autonomy. And that happened over 2000 years ago. When banks became involved and post offices, information about us became easier to be used by corrupt organisations. Telephones were bugged in the last millennium. In the UK we’ve never had a secret ballot to elect our representatives on local and national government. (voting papers have unique identifiers so the individual could be traced. When I queried this in the 1970s I was told it was to identify terrorists who spoilt ballot papers with threats.)
So it doesn’t surprise me that social media will use our status and event updates to build up profiles of us for commercial targeting. It already happens every time we use a shopping loyalty card. Our UK government is trialling electronic chips on vehicles. As a teacher, I used to joke that it would be handy to stamp a barcode on the forehead of pupils and swipe them as they enter and leave school premises, classrooms, etc. Now many schools make the kids carry electronic ID that does that. It won’t be long before its a chip under the skin, like in dogs and horses.
At least with facebook, and other social media we can opt out. or compromise by tightening our optional security levels, be prudent with what we write, or not log on at all. On the other hand I like sharing family and friend photographs, news and witticisms. As an author with a handful of books published by small press, I need to use social media to inform potential readers of my existence. Always a risk, there, of being accused of spam and that happened recently on twitter but hey ho. A fine line, and all that. If I withdraw and never tell anyone of my books then only close friends and family will know of them. Back to how it was centuries ago. Maybe that’s good. Who knows? The opposite of anarchy is Big Brother control, and vice versa, but where is the middle ground? It’s no wonder some people take off for a cabin in the woods.
Come to think about it that’s what Manuel does in ARIA: Left Luggage but that’s to avoid the crazies who have infectious amnesia and losing their minds. He has it too but is older so his retrograde amnesia mainly means he wakes up next to a strange woman each morning – the same one but he’s forgotten who she was. This wasn’t meant to be a plug if you fancy finding out about Manuel and how the internet saved others surviving the apocalypse –
“ARIA has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.” – Mike Resnick.
For book one try the following links:
Kindle – Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/ Paperback Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle – UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/ Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/ Publisher’s website with more details and formats. http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
The second book Returning Left Luggage the publisher is at http://www.ll-publications.com/returnluggage.html
UK Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
US Kindle http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
Paperback too.
Buy it quick before you run out of memory! Like it on facebook (if you dare) at http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy
