Big Brother Is Watching

The year is 1984. You are a prole in the country of Oceania, lower class. Or is it 2012? And you are in America, say, an average middle class citizen. You use social networks - Facebook, Twitter, maybe Pinterest and LinkedIn for professional encounters. You sometimes stop to think of the ramifications that the Internet has brought into your life, but not usually for more than a passing second.

As things get ever more Orwellian and technology throughout the world grows and changes, does anyone get the feeling that "the times they are a changin'?" Facebook recently acquired Face.com, a facial recognition software company. Whether the company plans to use this software to drive engagement on the site is unknown at this time according to Mashable. It has been revealed, however, that Facebook has been using the software to analyze user photos for about a year and a half. 


There are plenty of concerns I have about Facebook using this software to learn my face. For one, if Facebook can see my face, it means they can see what I'm wearing and what products or objects are in pictures of me. This equals even more targeted advertising on Facebook, which is great for those who really enjoy those types of things, but personally I think it's an invasion of my privacy to see targeted ads. I don't want a database to know what I like, or where I am, etc. 


Another issue I have with Facebook using this software to analyze photos is that it basically creates a gigantic database with pictures and information for everyone all over the world that can recognize who you are without . I know this sounds paranoid, but if that information was to venture into the wrong hands, anything could happen. All it takes is one incident. 


Though social media has done wonders for connecting people throughout the world, this is not one of them. The more social media corporatizes and gets away from what I believe to be its central purpose - to connect people all over the world, not entice them with advertising and analysis - the less it works. People don't want to have their entire lives pored over by complete strangers (but maybe some people do it enjoy it!). 

Hologram Hell

About a month ago, there was a resurrection of sorts at a certain very famous music festival in California. Tupac was the name of the hip-hop great to rise from the dead and Coachella was the name of the festival. If you didn't hear about this, you must've fallen in a hole somewhere because it was everywhere in music circles. I have to say, while the moment was a crazy cool thing, I have some reservations about it. 

Tupac "Hologram" Shakur

The first thing about the hologram hitting the scene that really hit me was that this guy was dead, yet he totally looks real (at least on video!). I couldn't believe how real it looked when I first watched. After watching a few more times it became more apparent that it was a hologram, but it's still pretty impressive.


While the technology for this is pretty awesome, and no doubt this was a great moment by itself,  I can't get over the fact that if holograms become a major part of entertainment, live music is going to be taken over by the legends of the living dead. I love live music, so I think it's crazy that the technology for a hologram is there and being used in tandem with live music. Imagine Sir Paul and Ringo playing with the ghostly forms of Lennon and George? 


Now, this is where it gets tricky for me. Rolling Stone recently wrote an interesting article about the future of holograms in music. Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix rising from the dead too? I'd rather not.
The fact that the technology is there does not mean it should be used. If the technology is used to bring back stars of the past, I think it will only hurt their legacies, not boost them. 


The question of authenticity is also an important one for me. Why would I really want to go see a hologram (fake!) of the artists I love? Understandably this is the closest it gets to actually seeing these artists live, and that is a valid argument, but I would rather let the artists live on through their music and film and words than see an impression of one of them, no matter how close the technology can get the virtual picture of the artist down. Personally, I'd rather imagine Jim Morrison "walk right up to you, look you in the eye, sing right at you and then turn around and walk away," than have it actually happen and know it's not really Morrison. 


The whole idea of holograms as an exciting part of music entertainment just rings, well, hollow to me.