Electronic eyes everywhere, but where are the helping hands?
A video of a woman who fell into a water fountain whilst texting on her phone has made a big splash on YouTube, but there is more to this story than meets the eye.
One cannot deny that there is a comic aspect reminiscent of a Rowan Atkinson sketch when you watch the video of the woman walking through a shopping centre in Pennsylvania, engrossed in texting, and blissfully unaware of the water fountain until she topples into it. The incident was captured on CCTV and has appeared on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/v/mg11glsBW4Y
But this isn't a TV comedy sketch, it is real life, and several things trouble me about this clip. The first is that whilst the shopping centre isn't busy, neither is it deserted. Some people must surely have seen her fall or heard the splash, yet no members of the public go to her aid. The second concern is that the security staff who monitor the videos and who can be heard speaking on this clip think it is quite hilarious but according to the customer at the centre of this incident, some twenty minutes went by before they decided to send someone down to see if she was injured. The third concern is that this footage so quickly found its way onto the internet. We are repeatedly told that CCTV is for our own safety and protection, but incidents like this remind us that the camera operators often have very little regard for privacy or dignity.
Modern society may be sophisticated and high-tec, but what good is all that technology if we forget the basic lesson of the Good Samaritan?
28th January 2011