{"id":1280,"date":"2018-05-08T10:16:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T14:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2018-05-08T10:16:46","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T14:16:46","slug":"keeping-track-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2018\/05\/keeping-track-of-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Track of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are at least twenty-three devices in our home that keep track of what we do.\u00a0 I say \u201cat least\u201d because there may be others I\u2019m not aware of.\u00a0 It\u2019s not unreasonable to think that anything I buy at this point \u2013 and definitely anything I get for free — is sending information about me to some outside entity.\u00a0 A shirt I recently ordered on Amazon has an odd pattern of silver threads running through the fabric \u2013 couldn\u2019t this be a transmitter of some sort?<\/p>\n

Just kidding \u2013 for now.<\/p>\n

All of these devices have other jobs.\u00a0 In fact, most of them do other jobs I\u2019ve come to depend on.\u00a0 For example, I don\u2019t know what I would do without misleading weather forecasts, 17 blurry photos for every one that turned out okay, Wikipedia articles that circle the drain around subjects I had previously imagined could be exhausted in a sentence or two.<\/p>\n

All of these devices lose their way with some regularity, giving me spinning images that suggest I contemplate the circularity of time, or rainbows, or beach balls, depending on my mood. \u00a0They frequently demand upgrades that require shutting down whatever I was doing, sometimes for several minutes, sometimes for several hours, sometimes permanently.\u00a0 And let\u2019s not get into the 78 passwords I have in circulation on a daily basis, some of which are \u201csuggested\u201d jumbles of letters, numbers and symbols I\u2019m convinced are actually obscenities in the AI universe, \u201csuggested\u201d for my devices\u2019 amusement.<\/p>\n

So their secondary jobs are dispatched with occasional pizzazz, frequent competence and a regular dose of Not Happening.\u00a0 I\u2019m fairly certain that their primary job \u2013 keeping others informed of what I am thinking and doing \u2013 is accomplished quite skillfully.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s fun to imagine that the data they are sending out about me is just as mixed-up as the services they are providing in return for my attention<\/span> devotion.\u00a0 I am consoled by the thought that service providers believe in a parallel me that loves nothing more than passing the time by tossing beach balls over shimmering rainbows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are at least twenty-three devices in our home that keep track of what we do.\u00a0 I say \u201cat least\u201d because there may be others I\u2019m not aware of.\u00a0 It\u2019s not unreasonable to think that anything I buy at this point \u2013 and definitely anything I get for free — is sending information about me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1283,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}