In Sam Gosling and Kate Niederhoffer’s excellent tutorial on Psychology and Social Media yesterday, a chart of private/public versus low control/high control was presented on which various activities and behaviours were located. Language is public but we have low control (over which language we speak), thoughts are private and we have some control over them. Interestingly, Sam located ‘underwear’ on this chart – private, but we have control.
It seems that Google Street View would have done well to look at this chart and to intersect it with a basic understanding of Japanese cultural norms. In the face of complaints, Google is re-photographing Japanese cities for its street view product as the periscope structure that holds the camera was high enough to peek over walls into the private gardens of Japanese houses. Japan (unlike the US) still uses wind power and solar energy to dry laundry (generally).
Chris Matyszczyk has more.
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