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Great To Watch By Maggie Nelson Summary

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The Bible reads, “Don’t befriend angry people or associate with hot-tempered people, or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul” Proverbs 22:24-25. The Bible is suggesting that one avoids contact with those who contribute negativity because one will begin to behave and exhibit these similar, negative tendencies. Being in contact with these nuisances alters one’s perception of life. Being negative comes easier, because this is what one has been exposed to. Similarly, one’s exposure to technology alters their perception of life. Authors Maggie Nelson and Sherry Turkle would agree that technology alters one’s perception of life negatively and positively. In “Great to Watch,” Nelson explores the effect different channels of media have on the general …show more content…

Nelson suggests that humans’ use of images via technology creates this desensitization. Nelson talks about the BlueServo project, which is a service where people volunteer to watch surveillance of the U.S. Mexican border waiting for “illegal” immigrants. Nelson mentions, member Chuck Stonex’s opinion that “it’s just like hunting” (Nelson 302). The ability for civilians to use technology to sit and watch a screen all day, and claim that it is similar to scoping an area out before hunting is a problem. Nelson suggests that it is also a problem when humans view other humans as animals and find the necessity in “hunting them down.” Technology is what bridges civilians with this viewpoint; it facilitates the component needed to allow someone to behave in such a manner from the comfort of their home. The use of technology has greatly altered the way these people who are a part of Blueservo view the world and their role in it. Without the easy accessibility of surveillance, participants may not be as privy to “hunting” other humans, but since it is, they believe this is their civic

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For their whole lives, people of a higher level of influence have told them what to do and when. But with BlueServo and websites like it, now it was their turn to influence other people’s lives. As with any bad habit, it soon becomes not enough, people felt the need to not only capture the criminals but administer their own idea of justice. A member of the Minuteman, an organized union of these surveillance addicted individuals, believed it was his turn to enact his version of justice. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of viewership is a complete misunderstanding of reality and this lead to the murder of two innocent Hispanic people.

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