National Geographic

THEY ARE WATCHING YOU 55endpoint of what University of Kansas sociologistWilliam Staples in 2000 called the “state of perma-nent visibility,” except by our own acquiescencerather than by governmental force? Our visualconstellation is replete with adorable babies, kit-tens, and elephants—but also ISIS beheadings,celebrities in sexual congress, double-speakingpoliticians, police shootings of unarmed civil-ians. Meanwhile, we’re seen, up close and far toopersonally, by airport-security screeners, “smart”billboards that tailor ads to us based on our ap-pearance, and everyone who knows everyonewho caught us on camera on a day when we couldswear we were alone.Whether this all adds up to a more enlightenedsociety, an overstimulated one, or a little bit ofboth is hard to say. I solicited the thoughts ofSusan Greenfield, a research neuroscientist andrenowned critic of social media obsessives, whoalso happens to be a member of the British Par-liament. Baroness Greenfield’s assessment was noless stark than Combi’s. “The notion of privacy, ofprivation, is shutting something out,” she said.“We need to cut ourselves off. Everyone seems tothink that it’s great to be connected and exposedall the time. But what happens when everything isliteral and visual? How do you explain a conceptlike honor when you can’t find it on Google Im-ages? The universe of the abstract is inexplicable.The nuance in life disappears.”``````PATROLVEHICLE