The Electronic Eyes of the Social Capital

The video camera symbolizes an intelligible system that seeks to replace mechanically thehuman eye, in this paper, entitled “electronic eyes”. People’s reaction when realize that they arebeing observed through the lens of the “electronic eye” are in a variety of ways. Some people getshy, others show themselves off spontaneously, and many of them try to avoid the electroniclens. Can a mechanical eye influence people's behavior? This article examines not only thisissue, but it goes further. Considering the increasing number of cameras installed in public andprivate places, the question is: may this fact cause any change in social relationships? The mainpurpose of this paper is to analyze the electronic eye’s influence on the concept of social capital.A qualitative exploratory study was performed conducted by semi-structured interviews. Theresults show that the electronic eye influences on peoples’ idea, on the social relationships, andon the social capital concept. Although changing peoples’ behavior and attitudes, the electroniceye does not replace the human eye, it only complements it. Coined by the authors, the term“electronic eyes”, is a contribution of this study to the Social Capital, conceptually supported bythe social philosophy.