Have You Seen the Signs?

Have you noticed the creepy signs around school? The ones labeled, “Big Brother is watching you?”Many students have noticed these in the past week, and it has come to student’s attention how weird and unsettling these signs are. If you take a walk around school, you’ll notice thin sheets of paper with those words written on them taped around school. Many teachers seem to know more behind this, as students seem to be very confused. 

This seems to be weird for students, as we live in an age where we are constantly tracked and watched with everything we do. To see signs like this, only reminds us of what’s around us and that we have no privacy. Today, students are constantly on their phones, being tracked, listened to, and watched throughout social media platforms and tracking apps. Many students are tracked by their parents on various tracking apps, while also having their snap map location on, on snapchat. There are many ways teenagers are tracked these days, and they don’t even realize it. 

Seeing signs like these around school makes kids nervous as to who put them there. Adelaide Kline said, “The signs seem to have a larger meaning behind them, and it is something we have yet to find out”. When asked about how social media constantly tracks us, she had said, “There are many ways technology is tracking us, and it’s scary to think we are always being watched no matter what we do”. It is easy to agree with both of her statements, as they are factual and easy to understand. 

Many students seem to think that these signs don’t really have a larger meaning, and that they are something that some club or class is using to get our attention. Brenna Dorsam said, “The signs might mean nothing. It’s probably just some teachers or members of a club trying to get us to pay attention”. While these signs are unsettling, they might mean nothing. It’s definitely easier to think that the signs have no meaning than to think of what goes on in the world around us.

Thinking about how people are tracked with their every move is something that we all try to pretend we don’t know is real. Ellie Lockwood and I grew up across the street from each other, and we both watched as we went from kids who played outside everyday to playing on ipads and  phones everyday. Ellie recently said, “We went from barely using electronics as kids to being on phones eight hours a day. We also don’t realize how nothing on our phones is safe”. It’s clear that the world has changed drastically since about 2010. With the creation of social media along with other apps, we are becoming more and more attached and addicted to our phones. 

The signs in school have got students thinking about how someone is always watching, and that nothing is really private or safe. Students today know that they are addicted to their phones, and spend way too much time on them. At least students know, but there doesn’t seem to be a change happening any time soon.