Yes, which is basically what Robert suggested.
Of course, there is also something as a fake sense of security/protection. One of the last laws proposed by the next/new Prime Minister of the UK, Theresa May (in her former role), significantly restricts the protection of privacy, which raises a few eyebrows, at least in (by some dredged) Europe.
Cheers,
Bart
Aka known as freedom of social media.
I have no qualms about suggesting that much so-called social media serves no useful purpose at all.
I've reached this venerable age without any help whatsoever from FBook, Twitter and all the bloody rest of them. I would be perfectly happy to see them closed tout de suite. They are the perfect conduit for terrorism, get in the way of people having actual conversations, and fill up the ether with more radiation than I need.
It takes but one visit to any public dining area to see the effects: people sit before the table, heads bowed and deep in concentration, ignoring the other people sitting beside them. If ever one of the best opportunities for social bonding has been destroyed it's this: eating together is now eating alone in company. No wonder people are increasingly antisocial, insular and incapable of interaction or even, in many, many cases, of writing a couple of sentences that hold together and make a modicum of sense.
Freedom? What the hell has living on a cellphone screen got to do with freedom? If anything, it's the unwitting abandonment of freedom to the slavery of a robotic interface where nothing, not even your family, is any longer real.
My late wife was a very smart lady, bright in both maths and the sciences. She would never send an e-mail, nor would she text. I used to tease her about it, and all she'd say was this: "within a second of hearing the kids on the 'phone I can tell if they are really okay or just telling me that they are okay."
And when you consider the cost and turnover of these daft toys, the emotional pressure/need to keep up with the idiot next door or sitting at the next desk, you can see that the camera trade still has a lot of marketing catching up to do. In the meantime, nice to know that your cellphone can double as a bomb trigger! So reassuring, isn't it?
As for privacy: in the UK you can't even get people to accept ID cards! Here, in Spain, they are essential. They are one of the most useful devices ever invented, far more useful than your credit card! They vouch for you, open doors for you, but in the UK are, by many, seen as, and equated with fights against democracy, against human rights, against your religion or lack of it; they are dragons breathing political fire and oppression.
Instead, I think they could be made even more useful by incorporating blood-type, allergies and all sorts of known medical details that can save your life if you fall to the ground unconscious for some reason or another. But no, that will inevitably be seen as intrusion, a fight against your freedom. Oy, effin' vey; what a bunch of conspiracy theorists we are becoming - or have already become!
In short, we are abandoning reality, the concept of being useful neighbours and withdrawing ever more deeply into tiny worlds within our own minds, incapable of accepting any wider picture and without the moderating influence of experiencing much that's real at first hand. Being Europeans? What? Have to cope with something that's not
English, with brands we can't find
at home? Better out of it!
Our sense of 'privacy' has become distorted to mean anything but our privacy, but simply our ability to plot and/or indulge in criminality with greater ease than ever before. In the end, it's the communication opportunities for criminals that we are defending; where innocent, there is nothing to hide, is there?