With the endless transformations and enhancements made to technologies and devices today, new media have simplified the ways in which we as a society accomplish our daily tasks. In a society where everything is fast tracked and based on efficiency, the global positioning system, GPS, is undoubtedly one of the most widely used forms of tracking in the world. Perhaps the most crucial and exciting aspect of GPS however is its latest use: on the iPhone 4 smart phone by Apple. As a modern form of continuous pursuit, it offers convenient 24/7 personal tracking allowing for portability and efficiency- but with a system that has the capacity to virtually track your every move- one must consider the issue of boundaries, necessarily leading each user to question where exactly in space “Big Brother” really is and whether he ever stops watching.
As a way to track oneself digitally on the go, GPS has modernized so as to allow for portability through space, altering traditional patterns of human tracking, like asking for directions for example, while at the same time necessitating changes in technological infrastructures. As an example of the latter and in contrast to older GPS technologies, modern GPS is vastly more efficient in terms of portability. Where an individual once had to be stationary at a computer screen and print out their Google-searched and mapped directions to take with them for reference, modern GPS on the iPhone 4 allows the user to take his directions with him on his phone and on the move without having to press “print.”
The GPS thus allows the user to easily orient himself on a highly specialized and digitized map right on the phone’s screen. Although this sounds a lot like the GPS manufactured for in-car use, this technology is one step above it in terms of efficiency, altering once more previous human activities and technological infrastructures. Whereas the in-car GPS incorporates similar digitized maps, it leaves out the portability aspect of that designed for smart phones. Specifically, this newer technology has taken into account pedestrian orientation. For instance, if a person is trying to find a specific address while walking and therefore is without access to their car’s GPS, they still have the option of quickly orienting themselves on the street and finding their way. In fact, the Apple website maintains that its GPS technology offers turn-by-turn directions by following a highlighted digital map route by ever-moving blue dot, representative of the user’s progress in real space (Apple 2010).
This alternative to the human activity of location orientation allows for the portability of directions on the user’s phone through the endless updating of his position in space, similar to Deleuze’s (1992:4) definition of control in “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” in which he discusses the notion of control as a breakdown of traditional forms of enclosures. A control mechanism, he highlights, can give the “position of any element within an open environment at any given instant;” the position itself constantly in flux (Deleuze, 1992:7). The iPhone 4’s GPS constantly updates its user’s current geographic position as he makes his way through real space, mirroring his movements by a blue digital dot. In terms of new media then, control societies can be compared to the constant enhancements and updates we see in digital and other technologies, allowing for more efficiency in human usage.
Further to Deleuze’s (1992) control societies concept, he offers a rather amusing metaphor that compares control societies to the serpent. As a creature that can slither its way into any space, the serpent is seen in this instance as able to track everything within this new system of control. It offers a new form of modulation that suggests that “what counts is not the barrier but the computer that tracks each person’s position - licit or illicit- and effects a universal modulation” (Deleuze 1992:7). Likewise, the GPS for iPhone 4 allows for traceability almost anywhere thanks to the built-in chip traceable by satellite or, more recently in the case of the smart phone, cellular towers. Therefore, as long as the user has cellular reception, the GPS can locate him. GPS follows its user, in this sense then taking on the role of “natural predator tracker,” constantly monitoring its user’s location not through heat sensors as in the case of the serpent, but through chip detection technology.
Similarly, GPS for iPhone 4 technology has altered the way in which we conceive of space. For instance, a digital map as on Google maps (the type of map the iPhone 4 uses), can be seen as an abstract version of real space and therefore as a sort of cyberspace representation of reality. Instead of only providing an abstract representation of real space however, GPS on the iPhone 4 allows the user to switch between three different views: map, satellite and hybrid, similar to Google maps, but on the go (Apple). In cyberspace, we usually have an avatar representing our own selves and movements; however on the GPS we are represented by a moving blue dot on a map. According to Julie Cohen, in “Cyberspace as/and Space,” “within experientially derived models, space is experienced in terms of situatedness and orientation” (Cohen 2007:210).
When conceiving of space, we are beings who immerse ourselves into a sense of spatiality in reference to where we are located (Mitchell, March 7, 2011). Our perceptions of space make it constructed by us in real space, but in terms of cyberspace, things are measured differently. According to Cohen’s mapping of embodied experience, networked space as in the ability to freeze a particular moment in time for use on a digital and satellite view of reality is characterised by the dissolution and penetration of personal boundaries (Mitchell). This capacity has altered forms of embodied experience in that individuals no longer require physically being present on a street to see what is located on it; a satellite view of it can appear on their GPS enabled iPhones and provide the same experience. Further, the iPhone’s GPS technology allows its user to simply type in an address to find their way to it, altering the embodied experience of using one’s own knowledge and sense of direction to find their way. Cohen (2007) specifically offers as example RFID tags that contain traceable chips in credit cards, cars or in this case, cellular phones, each infiltrating their way into the devices we use in our daily lives. This infiltration thus raises questions pertaining to privacy and control over these spaces, an issue that will be discussed a little later on.
GPS has as well altered conceptions of social participation in that it allows for easy connectivity between people. As per the Apple site, the iPhone 4’s GPS coordinates by itself its user’s current location through wireless LAN and cellular towers (Apple 2010). Once it traces its latitude and longitude in space, it allows the user to “copy his coordinates to the clipboard for usage in any other application” (Apple). The example given is that the technology can share its current location on Twitter, via mail or texting it to a friend. This signifies that individuals no longer require actually telling their friends where they are going, altering once again another human activity, that of communication. Instead, the user can simply rely on their handheld devices to send a much more detailed account of their location and faster.
Recently, the social networking site Facebook has installed an application that works with GPS on one’s smart phone in order to allow one’s current location to be uploaded to the site in the form of their status, thus allowing all their Facebook “friends” to know where they are. This specific aspect, although seemingly efficient, does bring to light the issue of privacy and boundaries of the user as introduced earlier on by Cohen. As per Cohen (2007), the difference between real and networked space is that the latter entails a lot more invisibility. For example, the shift to networked space means that the exercise of power known as surveillance for instance is given “greater potential for leveraging invisibility;” leaving the user unable to distinguish whether the watchers are watching and from where, who they are, as well as other types of information they may be accessing unbeknownst to the user (Cohen 2007:252). With GPS making use of satellite technology and cellular towers to track users, these individuals are being watched whenever the technology is enabled allowing a person’s current location to be posted on a social networking site for instance, something that goes hand in hand with the notion of watching and of being watched as discussed by Andrejevic.
GPS tracks the chip within the phone’s movement through space with its turn-by turn map route technology, literally allowing users to watch themselves move as represented by a moving blue dot. Likewise, through the GPS’ knowledge of the chip within our phone’s location, which is made possible by satellites and cellular towers, those who monitor them also know our location and further, watch us. In a society whose extra appendage is the cell phone, we give access to our location as long as we have our phones turned on and the GPS enabled. Not only does the satellite or cellular tower trace our phone’s built-in chip, knowing our exact location when we are using the technology to orient our own selves, but other persons, for instance parents or employers, have access to our location as well.
Employers who want to ensure their employees are on the job when they are supposed to be is an example provided in Andrejevec’s article, in which having control over one’s employees ensures quality work and productivity. Andrejevic (2002) sees knowledge and control as a form of power. In fact, his explanation of the relationship among these three variables sees it as one that takes away from one’s autonomy (Mitchell, March 21, 2011). Similarly then, parents who want to ensure their children are where they said they were going to be can track them just like the employer tracks his employees by giving him a company phone. While this may seem to relax the minds of those in power, it at the same time detracts from the trust and independence of those under surveillance.
In conclusion, through new media transformations, it is easier than ever for anyone to be “Big Brother” and watch us at their own discretion. Although new mediums are constantly being generated to improve the efficiency of older ones, in the process, we as a society are losing vital intimate details of ourselves and of our whereabouts, like our location. This invasion of privacy and penetration of boundaries might initially seem a convenience to users of GPS enabled smart phones, but in reality, it is simply a loss of independence and of brain power. With the invention of the calculator, individuals relied on a technology to calculate more quickly for them and in the process mental math took a hit to the point where efficiency won over human capacity and knowledge. If we keep relying on GPS and other technologies to do the work for us, our sense of direction will naturally be extinguished or at least diminished. With the constant updating of media technologies, who knows what other mental capacities will be hindered...
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