Little brother is watching you — on YouTube

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I keep harking back to the fifth grade, when I had a particularly irrational teacher who was given to frightening outbursts in the classroom. Because few adults would consider the word of a fifth-grader, my classmates got the bright idea to catch her in the act and document her behavior. We spent much of one particular class period trying to goad her into exploding. Then, when we finally lit the fuse, one of the students stood up calmly, pulled out a camera and took a snapshot.

It wasn't a well thought-out strategy. Nor was it a particularly bright thing to do to a teacher prone to temper tantrums.

But today. Ah, today we could have used a cell phone to secretly take a video of my teacher going berserk. One quick e-mail to school board members and she'd have been history.

An adage says you never should do anything you would be ashamed to do if the whole world was watching. But today you have to be aware that, at any moment, you are surrounded by people who could capture what you do without your knowledge. Politicians can't play fast and loose. Regular people have to demonstrate decorum. The time will surely come when a child will out an abusive parent with condemning footage.

Those are good things. But, on the other hand, who among us is perfect? And who among us can't edit digital videos? Little brother might make even tiny mistakes look awfully big. That's scarier than anything Orwell envisioned.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret Morning News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com.