“You Talkin’ To Me?”

Why exactly is it that everyone these days is always focused on, “me, me, me?” Sure, there have been self-centered people since the beginning of time, but doesn’t it seem like everyone nowadays is always out to either get on the defensive, taking everything personally, or to climb up on a cross like they’ve been victimized?

I was just reading an article on the do’s and don’ts of Google Glass, as it’s projected to be available on the mainstream market by the end of this year. One of the do’s mentioned is to “ask for permission” before putting on your Glass when in a public area near other people, as some become uncomfortable with the idea that someone could possibly be photographing or recording them without their knowledge. This has reportedly caused testers of the Explorer edition of the Glass, now available for $1,500 to a small customer base, to be accused by total strangers of recording them without their permission.

Everyone remembers this famous scene from the classic Taxi Driver – when Robert De Niro looks at himself in the mirror with his new guns and says, “you talkin’ to me?”

This is what I’m talking about. People out there must really think they’re important if they’d assume someone wearing the Glass is doing so just to record total strangers. I’m not going to make this article all about the Google Glass, but I’ll note that it has more features than just a camera. Sure, people will use the camera for weird purposes, but can’t they do that now with a smartphone? Or a smartwatch? I’ve got the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which features a small camera built into the band. You know how many times I’ve used it to take candid pictures of random people? Zero. But everyone seems to think their “privacy” is at risk with things like Google Glass and even less advanced technologies like websites that ask for a customer’s email address. What I’d like to know when it comes to the fear of being recorded is, if something someone is doing or how they look is so sensitive and top secret, why are they flaunting it in public anyway? The bottom line is that people think that because when they log into their favorite social media sites and the field for posting updates asks what’s on their mind that everyone is interested in every aspect of their lives. I wonder if the same people who tweet their location and check in on GPS-friendly apps everywhere they go are the ones who are afraid their privacy is being invaded if someone so much as snaps a candid photo of them. I’d be willing to bet that they are. They have no problem telling everyone that follows their social media pages where they are, what they’re doing, what they had for dinner, and who they’re sleeping with, but if someone has a picture or a 5-second video clip of them waiting in line at the bank or walking through a store it’s the end of the world. How about the people who post all kinds of incriminating photos and videos of themselves when they’re drunk or barely clothed? That’s OK but when they’re just going about their daily lives it isn’t because they don’t know someone is watching them? If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to hide. Maybe social media has gotten people so full of themselves that they think everyone cares about everything they do, but so long as what they’re doing doesn’t involve al-Qaeda, what’s the big deal?

On top of people who think they’re always being watched are the people who think they’re always a victim. These people seem to think that bad things happen to no one but them and the world and everyone in it is out to get them. A variety of these types are those who are always trying to sue someone or something. They lose their footing on a wet spot in a public restroom then months later decide to claim that they have “indistinct lower lumbar pain” and think it’s going to be a big payday. The victims always feel entitled – entitled to damages for one reason or another as if bad things don’t just happen all the time in life. To these people, everything is personal.

So we have a bunch of different people who seem to think they’re being singled out and/or are special that have the confidence to actually put themselves out there, confronting others and making accusations. But why? Have there always been so many people like this in society? Well that I can’t tell you, but if you take a look at technology and society maybe we can figure out where the attitude comes from in today’s era. As I mentioned earlier, social media has everyone feeling like they’re on the world stage, probably because they kind of are. The difference between someone who has 50 followers and someone who has 5,000 online is that the lessers aren’t going to be sought out and admired by people they don’t even know unless they attain some level of notoriety. Whether people really care about you or not, however, you still have the potential to be discovered by anyone anywhere – the question is whether or not it’ll happen, and most likely the answer is no. So where does the confidence and attitude come from? Thinking you’re being stared at or recorded in public is one thing, but actually being confrontational about it is another. Where do people get the idea that it’s acceptable, or even safe, to get on a soap box or a cross and accuse people of singling them out? Maybe they’re desensitized from reality in the sense that they think they’re a big deal and no one would dare stand up to or question them. It sure is easy to start a fight on the internet; everyone does it. Being an internet tough guy or a telephone tough guy is something people are more trained in these days than being in a real, face-to-face confrontation with someone. Maybe from being a badass Marine in their video games and tweeting death threats to their opponents people think they’re that badass in person too, when in reality they weigh 300 pounds and have crippling acne, no chin, and 3 sets of man bosoms.

What’s my point in all this? Well, it isn’t anything so philosophical or defined. I’m just pointing out that too many people have too big an ego and too much confidence without the reasoning skills to balance them out. Not everything is about you, and people really don’t think you’re that special. Just because your mother always told you you’re special doesn’t mean you need to go around acting like a moron and starting fights to show everyone. Just because Twitter wants to know where you are and what you’re doing all the time like a tabloid doesn’t mean you’re a celebrity. If you really like that kind of attention, wouldn’t you welcome the NSA spying on you? Then you’d have the fan club you’ve always wanted. People just need to deflate their heads and return to reality – where they’re just a normal person like everyone else who isn’t being photographed and talked about by the strangers they pass on the street.