For my artifact, I have chosen this Grey’s Anatomy ad. Grey’s Anatomy is an ABC show written by Dartmouth Alum Shonda Rhimes. This show follows protagonist Meredith Grey and her friends through the ups and downs of her surgical internship, residency, and fellowship at Seattle Grace Hospital. This advertisement shows the doctors of Seattle Grace in their scrubs and lab coats. However, that is all it shows. Other than “Grey’s Anatomy,” there is no text on the ad. The text is white and in plain font, but the word “grey’s” is larger than “anatomy,” and underlined in red. This is because the show’s protagonist is named Meredith Grey. The purpose of this ad is not to attract new viewers of the show, but to keep previous viewers engaged. No information is given in this ad about what Grey’s Anatomy actually is, only that it most likely involves doctors. This advertisement appeals to both ethos and pathos. Ethos involves the credibility of Shonda Rhimes and Grey’s Anatomy, because the show is well known enough that simply the name is enough to attract the attention of those viewing the ad. Pathos appeals to emotion, and in this case, attraction. All of the Seattle Grace doctors are extremely attractive, which sets unrealistic standards for men and women, as well as unrealistic expectations for doctors in general.

In the dystopian setting of Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, privacy is nonexistent. A wide variety of information is available about any individual at the press of a button. People are monitored throughout daily life, from flashing credit scores above streetlamps as you walk down the street to answering personal questions from a stranger in order to board a ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan. One of the more disturbing scenes in Super Sad True Love Story occurs when Lenny goes to a bar in Staten Island with his friends, Vishnu and Noah. During the night, Lenny spots a pretty girl across the bar, and Vishnu introduces the term FAC, an acronym for “form a community.” After pressing the appropriate button on his äppärät, looking at the girl, and placing his äppärät over his heart, Lenny was presented with an entire list of facts about the girl. Her entire life story became available to him instantly, including her sexual preferences, abusive familial background, financial status, and her opinion of him (in terms of fuckability, anal/vaginal/oral preference, and personality). The girl was provided with a similar biography of Lenny, and could see his opinions of her as well. This scene clearly illustrates, if it wasn’t clear already, that privacy is nothing but an illusion.

In our present world, social media has almost completely destroyed privacy. Obviously our financial statistics and credit scores aren’t written on our Facebook pages, but anyone can see our pictures, our friends and family members, and things we like and don’t like, such as actors, movies, music, etc. Through programs like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, it is possible to monitor individuals regularly, and obtain information about them in the blink of an eye. The technology available in this day and age eliminates privacy from our daily vocabulary, and most of our society is unaware of the degree to which they can be monitored.

The Eye in the Sky technology was developed in order to stop crime and increase security. While some might insist this is a violation of the patriot act, it cannot be denied that the ease with which criminals can be followed from crime scenes or drug lords can be tracked to their headquarters is invaluable information. Most US citizens who insist they are doing nothing wrong have nothing to hide, and therefore no reason to not be in favor of the Eye in the Sky.

However, it is easy to reject this technology on the basis that it gives the government too much power and removes all privacy from everyday life. Many United States citizens, for example, worry that Big Brother will emerge from the government’s innocent “security amplification” and our country will slowly become George Orwell’s 1984 dystopia. This technology is very easy to misuse and would yield catastrophic results, should the data fall into the wrong hands. It is easy for As Edward Snowdin once said, “arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”