Day 180: Is Instagram Big Brother?

Everyone is always objecting any form of ‘tracking’ and ‘monitoring’ into one’s ‘private life’. Yet on Instagram, everyone is doing exactly that: people are posting pictures of where they are, what they are eating, what they are doing, who they are meeting, etc. And no-one had to devise some ‘cunning plan’ to ‘secretly track you while you’re not watching’ – you’re voluntarily putting yourself out there and displaying your life for all to see and share.

On Instagram I am following a whole bunch of people who have Parrots. Every day or almost every day they post pictures of themselves and their parrot(s) and what they’re up to. What’s fascinating to see is how there are a whole lot of people with parrots following one another and so in essence: keeping track of them / monitoring them.

When they see a Parrot in a picture eating and notice that the parrot is being fed an unhealthy diet, people comment and point this out to the owner who is then very grateful for pointing this out. For the next few weeks you see him posting pictures of how his Parrot is adjusting to his new diet and giving updates.

Another person put baby oil on their Parrot and this was immediately pointed out to be a No-No as this screws with the Parrots natural feather condition and can be poisonous as they will preen the feathers with the oil on and get it in their beaks. People commented immediately and the person went right off to get the oil removed. This ‘InstaTracking’ may have well saved the bird’s life.

So here you have a natural tracking system where people keep track of one another and if a point of disharmony is noticed, it is pointed out and the person corrects themselves.

I mean, scientists are discovering new species – not by travelling across the world to some distant place, but through platforms such as Instagram where people share pictures of the animals, plants and critters they come across.

Tracking does not have to be a ‘scary’ thing and with the technology we have available it can be quite a fun and beneficial experience.

Sure, tracking and monitoring is not cool if it’s done from a profit-motive perspective where all that is being done is finding the next clue about your personal life that can be used to manipulate you as a consumer into buying stuff.

Luckily in EMC (Equal Money Capitalism), the profit-motive is removed and one’s well-being is ensured and protected within the Constitution – leaving only space for tracking which is beneficial for everyone.

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• Day 263 - Me Myself and Parrots.
• Day 267 - Me Myself and African Grey Parrots Part 5
• Day 167: Harmony and Equilibrium within Equal Money Capitalism
• Day 166: Corporate Social Responsibility in Equal Money Capitalism
• Day 264 - Me Myself and Parrots Part 2
• Day 265 - Me Myself and Parrots Part 3