Fear of Camera Phones

While I was reading Scripting An Enemy by Susan Williams and Travis Linnemann I noticed that their conclusion had such a strong message that could be related to every fear we face in our society. No matter who we are, or where we live, media representations of a specific culture can create a resented image that would cause fear in the society perceiving it. “What are the implications of a culture of fear perpetuated and enhanced, perhaps even created, by a celluloid image. We are too often afraid of the wrong things, we focus almost exclusively on a country and a people or our idea of them, when in actuality they pose little threat to our way of life.” (p. 205) I went to my cousin's wedding last week. I've always known that cameras and phones with cameras aren't allowed inside the wedding halls, but I never understood the reason behind this lack of trust amongst women in the society.

I decided to go ahead and see what would happen if I took my camera phone with me. I had to tie the phone to my leg and cover it with a long dress to get pass the security. I was able to get it inside. My next objective was to see people's reactions when I take my phone out. People started looking at me differently, some even came up and asked me if I was related to the bride or groom (closely related). Luckily I was. I would have gotten kicked out if I weren’t. Some might say that close family members are allowed to bring their phones inside the wedding halls. But in that specific wedding, people didn't even seem to trust anyone with a camera phone. Later my aunt asked me to take my phone to the security, or if I wanted to keep it with me I would have to hide it so that other people wouldn't see it because that might cause her a problem.

I asked her why does she think that everyone's untrustworthy, and would try to sabotage the wedding by taking a picture, or a video? Why are we living in a culture of fear that was caused by people carrying camera phones? We are afraid of the wrong things. Instead of getting security in weddings to actually protect us if anything “real” happens, we get them to collect phones. This fear of camera phones began in late ‘90s and is still here for a couple of good decades: the great fear of someone seeing your celluloid image with someone else.