In George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen-Eighty-Four, he described a society that was constantly being monitored through pervasive government surveillance. While we have seen some similar governmental initiatives, such as New York City’s own “ring of steel“, the existence of a Big Brother entity overseeing us all remains largely elusive.
With the proliferation of smartphones, social media tools, and the near instantaneous ability to create media the fact is we are working and living in an age of Little Brother. This is where the average person can create media that can garner wide distribution that previously was reserved for those with vast resources that required large amounts of money to maintain.
Here are 5 ways that we as agencies need to change the way we operate in this environment of Little Brother:
If you haven’t begun preparations in dealing with this new environment, what are you waiting for? Still not a believer? Luckily I’ve got a webinar for you…
Free Webinar: 5 Reasons and Methods For PIOs To Develop and Distribute Social Media Webinar on 11.11.09 at 10:00am EST
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We'd better take these recommendations seriously and implement them; the UK has just approved measures to "ask" CSPs to monitor and collect data on all internet communications, including "how people use social networks such as Facebook." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/83506... Perhaps Big Brother is closer than some thought–and you are correct, Little Brother is already here and busy.
Organizations need to be proactive in insisting on professional and honest behavior in these arenas, and the tone needs to be set from the top down, from the beginning.
I agree that we seem to surely be moving to a "Big Brother" type entity, although slower than what Orwell predicted and undoubtedly partially because of his prediction. The "Little Brother" phenomenon is something that wasn't predicted, but we need to address it all the same by educating and encouraging professionalism from those who represent our agencies in the day to day.
I am in totaly agreement that the tone needs to be set from the top so that it can trickle down, but it also needs to be a tangible effort and not just words on a paper.