Remember the movie Superbad where Jonah Hill (Seth in the movie) was compromised and captured with the stain on his thigh. Though it was fictional it reminds us that we are under surveillance wherever we go. A camera phone did the damage.

I use my cell phone for one and only purpose: i.e. to make and receive calls, though it has many bells and whistles. To be frank with you, even to this day, I don’t know all the features offered in my two year old cell phone. Just when I thought I am becoming dumb in this techno savvy world, I read this article from Telegraph / UK where it states an over reliance on technology makes our society dumb and dumber.

Though personally it comforts me, I may not agree with its findings. For the simple reason gadget hungry consumers are fast to assimilate information though their critical thinking ability may become a casualty in their pursuit. They look for patterns and differences between their current and new tech toys and are soon at home with their new ones. They can’t be faulted too much. Because today it matters little what you know already, compared to how fast you can learn.

I can expect that you opened your new cell phone package right in the shopping mall where you bought it. Removed the battery, assembled the SIM card & battery while simultaneously telling your friend as to what you are up to with your old cell phone. You can’t wait to get home to put it on charge. While on charge, you try to transfer songs, address book to your new blue tooth enabled device. And you go crazy clicking with your cell phone camera whatever comes into your view.

This blog is just about your last activity. While it empowers you to click on anything you fancy and keep the image for posterity, I think we should use some discretion before doing so. I vividly remember the day I saw the Air France A340 airliner (Flight 358 from Paris) overshooting the runaway at Pearson International Airport because I was driving beside the runway on Highway 401 just at that moment. I remembered many guys getting off their cars, running towards the fence to take a close look at the accident and some furiously taking pictures with their camera enabled cell phones.

May be they want to share their curiosity with their friends and family members or put it on YouTube. While the merit of such actions is debatable, I definitely am not for capturing human misery or misfortune on camera. While it may be fun for us to capture someone in a compromised position in our cell phone camera, it is a permanent embarrassment for the victim on camera.

If we are on the other side of the camera, it may not always be possible to restrain a shutterbug, in capturing us in an embarrassing situation. For we don’t know on whose cross wires we are on at any moment. When in public we should not let our guard down, but act civil at all times. Lest we may find ourselves on YouTube.