We are the Concerned Gen Xer's

We grew up with the ever-changing technological landscape. We witnessed the rotary telephones connected to telephone poles as a source for power, analog radio and television morph into digital signals that were not longer observable by the human eye. We live in the third-dimensional world perspective. We grew up mostly outside with house keys strewn about our necks held together by lanyards or in our Levi jean pockets, but if you were somebody, they keys were in your Jordache Jeans (can we get a shout-out?)!

Where Did all the Wires and Cables Go?

As we mentioned telephonic resources above where telephone wires could be traced from a phone jack to wire that ran from the house to the telephone pole located pretty close to the housing tack. On the other hand, television was somewhat of a mystery as it received analog signals and somehow connected to the antenna that sat like a giant satellite on top of the TV. There was something normal about understanding that those signals were being received by that hideous antenna. But then HBO happened and things started to get a little weirder, the antenna slowly went away and a box with a few knobs tethered to a cable appeared. This was okay at the time because we were a nation of folks that were still informed and connected to what was happening in the world. Space exploration was all the rage from the 60's to the 80's then, just like the gaudy antenna, it disappeared. But how does twenty years of solid engagement to point of most kids knowing the names of the rockets that were supposed to moon explore and our heroes, the astronauts just go away and disappear in the abyss of our subconscious minds?

Sure we had our movies at the time that were enough to keep any kid and working parents preoccupied. The movies were insane at the time as a new genre of horror films became robust within pop-culture. Just like the Jasons, Freddy Kruegers, Michael Coopers and let's not forget, Jaws, that taunted American Society were the all around bad kid movie genre we grew up knowing. The Bad News Bears, Rosemary's Baby, Linda Blair (yikes) and, well, at least they gave us Goonies; as kids in this era were depicted as a generation that was annoying, and needed to disappear in the recesses of our subconsciousness. As the Latchkey Generation dealt with low blows, the rabbit hole continued on with Big-Chemical and Big-Agriculture that flooded the grocery shelves with chemicaly derived food, GMOS. It wasn't enough to live in fear at the movies, our brains and bodies were saturated with other-worldly chemicals and pesticides that moved the attention meter within our our brains a little further away from the present moment. The space exploration disappearance was slowly becoming unalarming.

As our attention spans decreased, we were faced with yet another psychological thriller, the time of the serial killers. To be a Latchkey kid, eating the newly non-expiring packaged food, working parents, scary movies, changing technology, the disappearance of family gathering events like rocket launches and worthwhile political parties, we were continuously feed news stories of live killers on the lose in neighborhoods. The fear factor was off the charts, and became increasingly challenging to remain present about where technology was taking us.

We'll the Gen Xers are little older and much the wiser as hindsight becomes the critical tool to knowing and living in times when our privacy was never an issue. As we paid for groceries with paper checks, and cash, we never thought that voyeuristic ad companies were purchasing our spending data and using to sell us more products. At the time, our conversations were not recorded, when we spoke to another person on the phone, there was not a forethought of our words being archived into huge data centers and repackaged and ready for sale for Any entity to purchase. At the time we could reach into our refrigerators without our food consumption tracked. Also, there were always people that came to the door, our neighbors, our aunties, our grandparents, a lost person (once in a while) and all of it was normal.

Today We Noticed

Today realizing what were simple liberties are a thing of the past. We now have become a society that is suspicious of anyone that comes to our doors without calling ahead, or from a planned visit pinned on our digital calendars. We know that when we have a conversation, that our words are recorded and archived to an unknown location and that our data can be retrieved from unknown "third-parties" at any given time. If that was not enough, we know that any time an app is downloaded on our phones that it can trace all of our contacts, read the serial number on our phone, track our locations and track all other apps on the device at a constant rate. And for what? What the fuck has the ordinary citizen done to deserve this? The reasons for such violation and intrusions of our privacy ranges from an ad resources that uses our data to sell a product better to alphabet agencies to "gather intel" with impunity because the user agreed to the mounds of legal jargon before the download process. Earlier we spoke of what can solidly be conscrewed as an "assault" on our attention spans. Our attentions spans have now been systematically hijacked through a world of controlled media, and a world where chemicals are now ubiquitous in our skies, soil, water, and food chains. So today we are past noticing, we are alarmed.

Today it's imperative to remain vigilant in keeping a watchful eye on what technologies continuously violate our privacy and how it is being used. This website was created to provide information on the latest tech that is violating our right to privacy. Eventually we will have a news section to track the latest developments in policy, legislation, and expose the companies behind the privacy breaches.