Throughout Robinson Meyer’s essay Pics or It Didn’t Happen, he raises questions to address the increase in networked lenses all over the world. In The Prism by Jill Lepore, she highlights the privacy controversy in many events in the past. Robinson Meyer and Jill Lepore’s essays use real world examples to make their arguments about today’s paradox of privacy, the competition between having an online persona using new technology and safeguarding personal information. However, while Meyer uses an emphasis on social media to show the lack of privacy in recent events, Lepore focuses on a timeline of political events to illustrate the progressive absence of privacy throughout time.
Governments play a major role in the involuntary exposure of personal information through networked lenses. In both…show more content… Pointed out in both essays are governmental systems revealing information, whether the individual consents or not. Meyer notes that the group that is attempting to become the government in many Middle Eastern countries, ISIS, published video of the James Foley beheading and it spread all over the Internet within minutes (Meyer 2). That was their intended purpose all along, they wanted everyone to see their power. While Meyer notes ISIS, Lepore points out the Patriot Act, and as noted in her essay, the Patriot Act of 2001 “expanded authorization of surveillance to fight terrorism” (Lepore 7). This meant wiretapping, searches of records, and overall surveillance was no longer considered abuse of the law. This government interference has changed how people make decisions and form beliefs. In the case of ISIS, Meyer notes that after the video was released, public opinion changed from no involvement in the Middle East to full military action against ISIS. After the Patriot Act was passed, many
