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All of our modern social problems lead back to surveillance

Plus an opportunity to fight your situationship

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Daysia Tolentino
July 28, 2025

Happy Monday! We’re talking about surveillance culture today.

Also in this newsletter: Retraining attention spans, viral backlash leads to restaurant closure, new Hayley Williams songs that are password protected (don’t worry, I found a code for you), and a Destiny’s Child reunion.

Every viral topic over the last few weeks has led back to surveillance: Coldplay jumbotron affair, Tea app backlash and subsequent doxxing, the new Waves stealth recording glasses, the couple caught in a suggestive state at Yankees stadium, and the latest Love Island breakup.

We are watching each other all the time. We are mainlining schadenfreude to distract from the stress of our own lives and the miserable state of the world. We are always waiting — even searching — for the next fuckup to tumble onto our timelines so that we can relish in the fact that we aren’t that guy. We are filming other people with the hope of capitalizing on their misfortune. And if they get harassed? That wasn’t our intention, but hey, they shouldn’t have been acting off in public anyways! 

If we aren’t the ones snooping or recording others, we are the ones trying desperately not to be caught in 4K at a vulnerable moment. In a culture where everyone is deeply aware that their every move may be recorded, everyday people have learned how to put their best PR faces on. 

What is the purpose of this culture? For many, it began as an essential way to document evidence of systemic harm. People have filmed interactions with law enforcement, discriminatory encounters, and predatory behavior for their own safety and records. But it has also become a way for us to get views, call out people for lesser problems (cheating, namely), and police each other’s behavior. 

This surveillance culture has made us distrustful of strangers. Privacy is a fleeting luxury. It is hard to put our guards down when it feels like others are waiting to catch us at a low moment. 

Is it any wonder, then, that young people aren’t partying, dating, having sex, or meeting new people? All of these things are messy, requiring us to lean into our imperfect selves. The fun comes at the expense of putting yourself out there. But what if you put yourself out there in good faith, get rejected, and your rejection was shared without your knowledge? That’s a risk many people, understandably, don’t want to take. 

Surveillance and socialization go hand in hand. Nearly every mainstream media story about Gen Z has been about some sort of antisocial defect the generation shares. But when you grow up in such a punitive online culture, one that is deeply judgemental of every move, most of those quirks can be easily explained. The answer usually comes back to a desire not to look stupid, to control their image. 

Viral videos of strangers have populated the internet for a long time. However, there has been an uptick in the past five years of this kind of content — both real and fictionalized. I credit this to the rise of TikTok, which has had an unmatched ability to amplify content and distribute it beyond its intended audience. 

It is also a reflection of the desperate economic times we are in. We are more incentivized than ever to surveil each other because it’s an easy way to grow a following, and eventually, an income. Whether that means stealth recording unsuspecting prank victims, exposing gossiping friends for not being “girl’s girls,” or hunting down the subjects of bigoted public freakouts, people are creating lucrative platforms by airing out others.

My first job in media, in 2021, was to cover viral TikTok news stories, primarily Karen videos, business call-outs, and other “epic fails.” These posts were sensational, but there was a general feeling that the posters were trying to address some sort of power imbalance. If we could blow these videos up, audiences thought, we can shame this entitled rich woman, this horrible company, or this random person doing something we don’t agree with into changing their behavior. 

Some believed they were doing the righteous thing. Others were more petty or looking for clout. All of it has led to people becoming unsettlingly comfortable, even nonchalant, with interfering in the lives of others — mostly complete strangers. Most of this is done under the guise of accountability. Rarely does the punishment ever match the crime. In many cases, one fuck up caught on camera can open the door to a wave of harassment, doxxing, death threats, false reporting to agencies like CPS or ICE, and more.

I revisit this Buzzfeed News (RIP) story about “panopticontent” every month. It was written in 2023. It features interviews with people who were unknowingly recorded and received viral attention from posts that made false claims or assumptions about them. The posters mostly did it for the views and didn’t think their videos would impact real people. By the time the subjects clear things up, the damage is already done. 

At the time, I thought that it almost felt late. Viral videos capturing unsuspecting subjects were already ubiquitous at the time. In reality, this article has only become more relevant. 

When it comes to real harm caught on camera, people seem to be far less interested in accountability or restoration. Apology videos or statements are hardly adequate these days because they are often viewed as disingenuous or too scripted. 

Instead, people want blood. They want others to lose their jobs, their sense of security, and even their lives. It is hard for me to understand why anyone would want to join in this kind of mob or how anyone would have the time to uncover a random stranger’s information. My only guess is that a lot of people like the feeling of control they get from playing with other people’s lives. 

This punitive culture requires a fair amount of dehumanization, of insisting that another person is irredeemably bad because of their mistake. Otherwise, it might not feel so good to think about how you may have ruined a normal, flawed person’s life. 

Surveillance isn’t just hurting the people being recorded, it’s hurting all of us. We have normalized the documentation of our every move and the weaponization of those records. This makes it easier for the government and third-party entities to monitor our activities, whether we are willingly offering our data or not.

This culture should make everyone uneasy. Fortunately, it seems more people have begun to call it out. As is the case with any trend, the pendulum may be swinging back against it sooner rather than later. 

If you’d like to learn more about the impact of online surveillance on our culture, I recommend: 

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Cigarettes have felt very back in recent years, more than I would have expected after enduring all those truth ads as a kid. I have had some reporting and general thoughts about this kicking around over the past year. A few recent music releases have reminded me of this. In lieu of a story (for now), we have a cigarette summer playlist.

CIGARETTE SUMMER

Playlist · daysiatolentino · 8 items

open.spotify.com/playlist/3EllICWhHHjeYZsc5os8m1?si=78b5a2da41ca47b2

In this week’s playlist:

  • Headphones On - Addison Rae

  • Cigarettes Out the Window - TV Girl

  • What Was That - Lorde

  • Cigarette Daydreams - Cage The Elephant

  • Guilty Pleasure - Chappell Roan

  • Cigarette Smoker Fiona - Arctic Monkeys

  • Spring breakers - Charli XCX

  • Cigarettes & Alcohol - Oasis

Other things I want to share with you.

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