In today’s society, its all about the latest and greatest. Everyone is struggling to keep up with the current trends and stay in the ‘now’ while keeping their tippy toes on the edge waiting for whats coming next.
For the most part – everyone embraces advances and changes. First off – what choice do we have? Short of running off and leading a life of solitary confinement in the woods somewhere, everything that is new and now is constantly being shoved in our faces.
So while we’re embracing things, what are we losing?
I think a lot of people are starting to catch on that we’re actually losing quite a lot.
Face time is replaced with screen time.
Research using multiple sources is replaced with Wikipedia, and surfing the internet for other peoples opinions on google.
Going out to meet friends is being replaced with virtual meet ups and text messaging.
We’re losing our sense of us. Our sense of being human – without a cord attached.
Being able to be informed with up to the second news is great – but only sometimes.
In the security industry its definitely a bonus to have all of this knowledge and power readily available. If anything happens, notices are sent in a flash and back up is on the way – action plans are put into place and teams are mobilized in a matter of seconds.
Its fantastic to be informed.
But –
This works two ways. With everything so readily available online, that means everyone has easy access to it. Good or bad.
While you’re working, good and bad know what you’re doing, when, and where. When you change plans? Its not that hard to figure that out quickly either.
When it comes to the police, tweets are sent out by their media department, by innocent bystanders, by victims, by anyone and everyone. Whether malicious intent or not – broadcasting where police or security forces are at all times is not always a good strategic move.
In some countries, some terrorist organizations prime target is security and police forces. When they find out where you are or where you’re moving, these become new targets. The people around, new victims.
Technology works in many ways. It provides us with the knowledge to prepare, move forward, attack, and reevaluate. It gives us additional eyes, security footage, details that we may have missed, and records to go over to prepare for next time.
It allows us to speak to one another without having to be next to them. Communication – a huge technological advance.
The news agencies are able to report up to the minute, almost up to the second news.
You’re no longer waiting for the daily or weekly paper – you can go online and find everything out in a matter of seconds.
Everything is sent out in a matter of tweets, snaps, grams, and chats.
While most of the world says ‘yes – this is good. This is what I want. I want to know everything and I want to know it now’, its also ensuring that while the good news may travel, the bad news travels faster. Negativity and sadness travels at light speed. Heartbreak, loss, suffering, these are all something you can read about and see daily. Humanity suffers. Being exposed to all of the bad all of the time is not good for anyones mental state.
Depression rises, sadness rises, heartache rises.
Then there are people that are sometimes trying to hang on by a thread and they see too much, read too much, get affected by too much.
There are copycats.
There is easy access to find out how to do bad things.
More things happen.
Bigger things happen.
There are people that don’t just want to read the news anymore, they want to be a part of it. They want to make headlines – and not just to be the hero. Its much easier to play the part of the bad guy sometimes. Especially if you want to make the news.
Like I said – good news travels, bad news travels faster.
So what does this have to do with the security industry?
More events.
More publicity.
More media.
The wider the broadcast signal, the wider the problems.
So while we have all of this extra advanced technology to help us with our day to day lives and jobs, sometimes you have to wonder how much of it is really needed… how much of it is actually making things more difficult.
If technology wasn’t so advanced, media wouldn’t have such a huge upper hand on … well everything. News wouldn’t travel as fast and people wouldn’t be constantly tuned in and informed. People would still gather in large groups – but would they be as large? If the media wasn’t able to reach such a large mass of people, how would they know? How would they gather? How would they make for such large targets?
Larger targets = larger threats = more security.
At the end of the day, you’ll be pressed to find a ton of people you know first hand that would give it all up (and I mean ALL) to go back to the days of rotary phones, typewriters, and telegraphs. Where sending a birthday card meant a trip to the store, and another trip to mail it.
In at least one way or another, we’re all benefitting. But you can’t take the good without the bad. Everything comes at a price.
The price may mean that technically we’re all still employed, our security companies can grow larger as the need increases. Theres always a silver lining I suppose.
So we learn to embrace that while we get to know all the little details, theres a good chance the bad guy knows them too, and we just hope that we’re able to stay that extra bit ahead to maintain the upper hand.
Guest Blogger Rayna Davies
Rayna Davies is a graduate and practitioner of Business Management. She has developed an expertise in blogging, covering subjects like travel, world events and security. Having grown up with a father who has developed an expertise in Physical Security and Executive Protection in the RCMP and two major corporations, she has personally observed and experienced many security details. These experiences have included personally meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and many celebrities. She presently assists Sentinel Security in Executive Protection workshops and guest blogging and also assists Gloprosec Preventative Services in Intelligence gathering and Business Administration. Her passions include World travel, having visited every continent. She currently is on maternity leave and providing daily close protection for a baby and a toddler and spending time with her husband who is a Police Officer.