People Are Watching

People Are Watching

 

I have some time on my hands, and am involved with leisure time activity.  Recently I have added blogging more than once a month to my to-do-list.  Tomorrow is a football day, and is already on the schedule.  Long day.  70,000 people in the stadium to see their team play, and projecting that it will be fun watching their performance.  Fun Watching.  Spectator and Sports.  That has nothing to do with the blog as it is titled, People are Watching, but then again maybe it does and I am just not seeing it that way. 

Now, is Saturday and into evening.  Have done most of the things I intended to do today.  Now am winding down, and it occurred to me I could spend a few minutes blogging.  So this is the start of that thought, being actualized.

 

People are watching and I am not sure if I wanted to write about people watching Netflix or our modern day equivalent of 1950’s TV.  Lately I have told myself its all the same, and is a form of Screen Watching.  Passive, except when the screen allows you to be interactive, and for this reason there are many screens in the room with me.  Modern and most people can relate.  So many ways to be in the world, using modern communication capabilities.  People Watching and it occurs to me this can occur, without a screen.  So let me put that near the top of this blog.  People Watching.

 

Need a little help here to keep this topic interesting.  On another screen I notice that  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_watching gives me a lead in to what we can entertain next.

Copied from wikpedia:

People watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions, usually without their knowledge. It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to guess at another person's story. This includes speech in action, relationship interactions, body language, expressions, clothing and activities.

 

Now I have to focus and follow the path of the eye.  People are watching, and this is like making a statement.  Already I have seen that people are watching a lot of TV, and playing video games, and using their devices to accumulate a lot of screen time activity.  Add to this, just going outside or even standing on your balcony or porch  and doing what Wikipedia describes as people watching or crowd watching.   So two variations or ways I could continue on with this blog.   Will sit here for a moment, stare into the unknown, and ask myself:  What are people watching?  And feel like I already know.  People Watching, and with or without my knowing or with my permission or otherwise, they could be watching me.

 

What has started out as a perfectly appropriate conversation with myself, converted into print and serving as a pathway to sharing, suddenly it occurs to me.  This is making me uncomfortable.  Not sure if I am naturally shy, or just now brought the subject up that surveillance software and devices are embedded into the screens that I watch, and are perhaps a vehicle for others to watch me.  Surveillance.  People are watching.  Now I am asking and might have to look into all this further.  Is people watching or the reverse, people watching me harmless or perverted or so common now, that I should dismiss it from my mind.  Not sure how I would answer this, so I will change the subject.

 

Didn’t watch the Presidential Debates that took place in the United States and was broadcast world-wide on those screens I was talking about.  Didn’t Watch.  Looked Away.  Wait more truthful,  I opted to watch through a filter, as it was the next day and I was reading about The Debates and the performance.  Then via replay, there was video of various portions of the debates that people were commenting about.  After-the-fact people are watching, and in common language this is mentioned as Video Replay.  And its as common as tea and crumpets to begin my day.

With surveillance and with replay and am now aware that the prospect of watching, (people are watching ) is now prolonged.  Could replay in my mind the bad feelings that I have concerning all of this.  Or, as is the case often now,  I don’t prefer to watch in live or real time.  Wait for others to direct my attention to something worth seeing.  And of course,  that ties in with the title of this blog.  People are Watching.  And this helps me enjoy the present moment where writing a blog was and is to be an enjoyable experience, at least for me.

 

I am not sure how I can check how many people are watching the debates, or the sports game that caught my interest earlier in the day, or finally how many time are watching me, in real time and in repeat-replay style.  Have washed my hands and satisfied myself.  Won’t prolong this.  Official numbers and determining who is doing the people watching, and who are the victims of the watch, are outside the scope of this blog.  But having brought it up,  I now know why I am reluctant to carry a smart phone, with camera embedded around with me.  Do not have a cell phone.  Hoping to not take my wifi e-reader Kindle with me when I go out, but find myself doing so, more and more.  Like to read.  Have time on my hands.  Leisure time activity.  Walking.  Taking a break.  Getting a signal and checking in on what interests others.  Checking the news.

Put it out there.  People are watching.  Leisure time activity.  People Watching.  And now I am acutely aware why I will say no more.  Realize that when I am in public I feel like people are watching me.  Like I can’t get enough, and I am important enough to be the center of attention.  I think not.  Even in replay, I think that I blend in.  So why worry.  Replay it in your mind.  Most people are not watching you.  But the surveillance cameras are.  And he decides that none of this should be seen as a good or bad thing.  Not involved in a crime.  Just being me.  No reason to keep all this video that has me in it.  And so I am thinking, on a broad scale, how do I hit the erase button, and make it all go away?

People Watching and it happens all the time.  People are watching, and I have decided not to invest the energy nor the time, to determine what they are watching.  Not part of the debate, and so the whole idea of the scope of this silences me.  Am now working on an-invisibility-cloak that will allow me to hide or be in public or even in my home, and not be seen.  When I get that done will write a blog about it.  Until then, just wait and see.  What the vision and the object have in common with you.