I Know Where You Are (and what you’re doing, and…)

I realize that my last few blogs have been about technology and that I may come off sounding like that crazy uncle that is a conspiracy theorist. But I grew up in a time when Big Brother is Watching was coming to be a concern.

I went on Facebook today and over at the right it had ads for places I could go to fill the needs of the searches I had done earlier on the internet. It knew I needed a haircut, was looking at real estate in the area and was thinking of traveling to Hawaii.

Then up at the right were notifications about where my kids were. Brooke and Nick had checked in at Holy Smokes and Dan and Amanda were at Barnes and Noble in Boca. Lauren hasn’t checked in anywhere so I have no idea of her whereabouts, but neither does whoever is out there watching our every move. Good for her!!!!

I was writing a book about a woman who gets fed up with technology and decides to leave everything behind and start fresh. It wasn’t as easy as I thought. In the old days one would just get in a car and drive away. But now we have detectors on the turnpike recording your every move. Cameras mounted on street corners and outside businesses along with pictures taken at every ATM, convenience store, and gas station.

The cars are loaded with electronic data systems that allow your auto to be traced and don’t get me started on how the authorities can monitor you through your cell phone.

So unless you have a slew of cash, a car purchased before 1997 and know that you can have no contact through any phone with anyone from your past, you need to rethink trying to start anew. You can never use a driver’s license or social security number for any identification and you have to stay off all main highways and toll roads.

So I thought I had the scenario all laid out. My heroine could do this. She’d disappear from her life and start a new chapter in the back woods of Montana.

Then I remembered something that happened to me thirty years ago. My husband and I had moved to Ft. Lauderdale Florida from Columbus Ohio. 1200 miles away from home and on the first day there I ran into an upstairs neighbor with whom I had gone through high school. So apart from all the technology, the world itself has become such a small place. I wonder if anyone can get lost anymore.