The legendary catchphrase “Smile. “You’re on Candid Camera”, launched an era in the broadcast television world, and the entertainment and the audience has never looked back.
The cult hit television show captured unexpecting Americans, and ushered in the video tape era beginning in the the 1940’s which reached its peak in the 1980’s with a combination of humor-filled rigid scripts, likeable characters and the strategic placement of camcorders to capture all the action. The production elements of the filming and editing prompted an explosion of personal recording devices in the consumer marketplace inspiring individuals and families to document all aspects of their lives with portable solid state equipment and building a formidable tape library of special and not so special moments and memories. Sony became the major player in the initial camcorder wave allowing individuals the option of conveniently filming everyday life.
Literally fast forward nearly five decades and the technology has evolved considerably to a point of no return on a cultural and socio-economic level. The success of “Candid Camera” eventually led to “America’s Funniest Videos”, which paved the roadway for a quantum leap to the present unsettling reality of a world constantly recording anything and everything privacy hanging in the balance. Innovation in both hardware and digital applications capturing everyday life continues to make the next metaphorical and significant jump to outer space by possibly beaming content to extraterrestrials at the speed of light of human beings at their worst, with all the subtlety of a streaming of a Richard Simmons comeback special filmed with a series of retro name brand camcorder models. A blast from the past coalescing with the future
While digital recording devices are now the primary contributor through the use of high-definition lenses, the limitless options available to legions of gadget owners, another flood of content is emerging in the private and public space with ramifications that are not all fun and games beginning with Simmon’s “Sweating to the new millennium- a fitness odyssey” , a Netflix special seeing only a trickle of views and downloads.
In this contemporary nightmare, the relevance of primetime television has been severely limited outside of a few rare instances, is due in large part to the shear number of smartphones, devices seeing the world though the eye or eyes of computers interfaced with firmware large and small. Included in the devices category are the latest generation of home and doorbell cams that have the capability to film neighborhoods 24/7 like an extra security guard or sentry, and the crushing amount of data stored as a result is a daunting thought. However, the machines never tire and are absent from judgement outside of bias of Big Tech ingrained in lines of code and this results in the entire day and night from the neighborhood within the range of the doorbell cam and never to be officially erased. This includes a wide spectrum of useless football from grass growing to Miss Tybill entering a corner house to allegedly continue an affair with a married man. Somethings are better left unseen and for the imagination.
Marketed by the giants of the electronic retailers marketplace, the doorbell cams are swiftly replacing traditional methods in the first line of home defense, which includes barriers, extra door locks, and sign warnings. This passive aggressive approach to security is laughably ineffective as burglars thrive in this environment. Thanks to Silicon Valley endorsing unreasonable expectations for home defense in promoting glitter and glam for over time-tested methods of protecting property, many Americans are oblivious to the options available to them. This includes the responsible ownership of guns and ammunition to deter home invasions and the voracious appetites of thieves. Thank you media.
The ongoing joke is that while a doorbell cam alerts the resident of an intrusion onto a property, the homeowner is reticent to take any action to thwart a package being stolen, car prowl or an attempted break-in. At least the crimes are recorded by the doorbell cams. Of course, usually in these instances local law enforcement is contacted by the frightened individual and the typical result is that the intruder gets away undeterred by being recorded. The punchline is whether or not the thief is wearing or not wearing a mask, it has almost become a game to criminals hitting a home, having their likeness captured by the doorbell cam, and searching for and finding their criminal activity posted on a social media community watchdog page. Ironically, burglars create their own deplorable online posts of getting away with a crime and earn credibility among fellow miscreants while mocking the victims in the uploaded videos.
As a result of the relentless anti-gun agenda of the mainstream press, Second Amendment advocates face the challenge of battling to preserve basic freedoms especially in major cities, which includes reaching through to indoctrinated doorbell cam subscribers on the crucial topics of self-defense and of course home security applications that promote swift and effective justice.
With no fault to the “Candid Camera” franchise or the Richard Simmons app debacle, law abiding citizens should “smile” for the camera, and “scowl” as a crook. On a side note, signs are available to consumers to post on properties that warn burglars that cameras are rolling on the premises with the meme, “Smile. You’re on Candid Camera”, though the effort to hang the mildly humorous message is does not make a difference in scaring the crooks away.
Disconcertingly, the dynamics of society have changed to the unrecognizable and decency faces an undeserved intolerance from the naive. Cameras everywhere could be a precursor to a surveillance state with humanity trending towards the listless rather than the proactive in fostering accountability.