“Email Surveillance”
“Its another beautiful day in Scranton!” exclaimed Michael Scott,
Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. “The Office” is an NBC television
program depicting the lives of workers in a struggling paper company. Michael
Scott is “the boss” of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the company and
seems to have an adequate level of trust between him and his employees. You can
see this trust as the show grows throughout the first few seasons. Although
there is certainly some speculation of the qualifications of Michael Scott and
questions on how he runs his branch, it is clear that there is a large amount
of trust between his upper level position and their lower level worker
positions. 
This trust level takes a hit one day when Michael decides that he wants
to use email surveillance over the people in his office. The motive as to why
he wants to do this is unclear but it was an obvious way for him to control or
at least know what was happening within the office better than ever before.
Once the employees find out that he will have the power to monitor their
actions on their emails, there is a clear sense of discomfort. Oscar Martinez,
an accountant, is the first to speak up when Michael comes out of his office
asking, “What’s the deal? Why are you spying on our computers?” Michael first
acts like he doesn’t know what Oscar is talking about but when pressed by
others in the office he admits that he now can see everyone’s personal
information. There is discomfort in the way that everyone in the office is
feeling from the new “Big Brother” style monitoring going on in the office.
Michael, in his humorous way exclaims, “You know what the problem is? When
people hear the term ‘Big Brother’ they immediately think it is scary and bad,
but I don’t. I think ‘Wow, I love my big brother!” The fact is, knowing you may
be watched, at any point without you knowing affects the way you think and act,
inhibiting your freedom and peace of mind.
The boss, the power in the office is trying to convince the workers that
the idea is a good one but it is obvious to all that the new surveillance is a
sketchy change the company is making. When it comes to using surveillance over
people, it seems like it is always an uncomfortable situation. In the case of
Unites States citizens, we understand that our phone companies have the power
to read everything we put out on our phone and the government can read anything
we put onto the internet, but it almost does not seem real because the concept
is so large. I cannot truly grasp that idea in my head, but in this episode of “The
Office” we are able to see the reality of the situation. Michael Scott is the
big power monitoring all of the regular people’s emails. By putting a face to
this power, we can see how scary and uncomfortable it is really is to be watched.
Separation between the government and the people seems to be a big theme
that is hit on in this episode. Power levels demonstrated by Michael are one
example but when he tries to then be a friend to the employees later in the
episode, he finds that he cannot really have it both ways. While surveying an
email from one the employees, he comes across an E-vite from Jim, one of the
more popular employees, inviting everyone except Michael over to his house that
night for a party. Once Michael sees this he is very upset he wasn’t invited
and wonders why. He tries to eat lunch with the employees but it feels strange
and in the end he never gets himself the invite he craved. “There is always a
distance between the boss and the employees. It is just nature’s rule. It’s
intimidation mostly. It’s the awareness that they’re not me. I think that I am
very approachable, as one of the guys…but maybe I need to be even
approachabler”, says Michael. I believe the writers of the Office try to
display the gap between government, the “Big Brother”, and the people of the
United States showing that there cannot be complete trust and equally if the
people are being surveyed.
The basis for this
theme is from the studies of Jeremy Bentham and Michael Foucault and their
panopticon Jail System. It was an idea to have prisoners in a circular jail,
never allowing them to know if they were being watched or not. They could not
see the guards in the prison but the guards could always be watching them. This
sense of always being watched, this “assumption” messes with your mind and
never allows a peace of mind that you are truly free and by yourself. In the
panopticon, someone may not always be watching, but they could be watching and
you have no idea if they are or not. This “Big Brother” idea has moved from the
panopticon jail to surveillance over regular citizens now with the use of the
internet. Although we don’t know for sure if other people are watching, they
could be. That is not true freedom.
We had an in depth discussion in class about whether we were comfortable
with the “Big Brother” aspect in our lives on the internet. It was an interesting
discussion and both sides have good arguments for if it should be allowed to
happen or not. Many believe the government is there to protect us but some
think that they should do so without interfering with our rights. The Journal
of Strategic Information Systems states, “the nature and the seriousness of the
security threats would seem to make surveillance a welcome and justifiable
practice and the subjects – voluntary participants” referring to the increased
number of terror threats and acts in the United States in our lifetime. That
being said, they understand that, “American legal precedent and public opinion
reflect a society in which privacy is highly valued.”
The “Big Brother” will always be a debated way to keep tabs on people.
Both sides have good arguments but in the end, freedom is the most important
thing people have in the United States and people will not allow it to be taken
without a fight. Michael Scott in the office represents the power to watch
closely the people he leads. His employees demonstrate clearly how
uncomfortable it makes them. Although they are not doing anything wrong or to
hurt the office, they are not comfortable with their private lives being
watched. They feel violated. Because of the size of the United States
government, it can be difficult to put a face to “Big Brother” but this episode
does a nice job at capturing what is going on around us everyday.
Work Cited
Dinev, Tamara, Paul Hart, and Michael R. Mullen.
"Internet privacy concerns and beliefs about government surveillance–An
empirical investigation." The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
17.3 (2008): 214-233.
McKinlay, Alan, and Ken Starkey, eds. Foucault,
management and organization theory: From panopticon to technologies of self.
Sage, 1998.
The Office: Netflix Season 2 Episode 9 “Email
Surveillance”
Pictures:
http://perezhilton.com/tag/words/
I found your blog interesting and entertaining because I am a big fan of The Office and have seen this episode!! I agree with how you related the emails to the situation revolving around cellphone companies. I think it is completely true that when we know someone might be watching us we are always going to be a little bit uncomfortable and always on our toes. I also feel as though our generation is less worried about the fact that what we will never have complete privacy, and that the government can always access our information.
ReplyDeletePat, I thought this blog was very interesting. I think it ties to the idea that "Big Brother" is always watching and that's something our generation often overlooks. Although some do make the argument that "Big Brother" is to protect us and keep a look out, it also means we never really do have true freedom.
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