Meghan Leonard
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meghanleonard.bsky.social
Meghan Leonard
@meghanleonard.bsky.social
1.1K followers 4.2K following 97 posts
Associate Professor - Political Science @ Illinois State University: judicial politics & state supreme courts. cats. women's sports. basketball. she/her
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Reposted by Meghan Leonard
parismarx.com
Probably the worst of them all is the Ring doorbell.

It’s sold as safety, but it’s much more about fear and paranoia in a box that turns you against your community. The more of them in the world, the worse our neighborhoods get. Don’t help the spiral continue.

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Speaking of a reindeer taking down grandma, a Ring doorbell might be able to capture that kind of footage so you have proof of what happened. But like with the smart speaker, there’s so much more that comes with that purchase. Amazon — and other companies pushing camera doorbells — want you to think they’re making you safer by giving you insight into what’s happening around your home. Ring doorbell ads often also try to make them appear fun, with people putting on a show for the doorbell. But that’s little more than a public relations campaign. For me, the camera doorbell is the perfect example of a technology that makes people believe they’re safer when really making them more paranoid and anxious as they see their neighborhood and community with deep and unwarranted suspicion. People become aware of things that had already been happening around their home for ages without them knowing about it and they become like big brother, spying out everything once the camera detects movement. It gets even worse when this paranoia meets social media, whether through snitching apps like Nextdoor or the spread of clips on platforms like Facebook that convince others to fear their surroundings and vastly overestimate the amount of crime happening in their vicinity.
November 25, 2025 at 5:32 PM