Wal-Mart pictures: an Invasion of Privacy?

An Ypsilanti woman is upset that a picture of her mother shopping at a local store has appeared on a website dedicated to taking and posting photographs of shoppers at Wal-Mart. Needless to say, the most potentially embarrassing pictures are the ones most likely to appear on the site.

Melanie Wheeler doesn't like it, and who can blame her? It goes beyond the fact that the picture in question is her mother and into questions of privacy even in public areas. Why does anybody feel they have the right to take semi-random photos of those around them, to then post them on the Internet?

To be sure, many people wear clothes designed to draw attention to themselves. It is probably fair to say that those folks don't mind the practice. But that reason hardly excuses the process of actively seeking people who may be dressed, well, in less than complementary fashion and making them public on a worldwide stage. Especially if all they are doing is shopping.

That some people are easy targets for the gawkers of our land rather misses the point. We could debate forever about what type of clothing suits whom, and there's no doubt that fashion sense is lacking among many citizens (we are not intending to besmirch the woman in question here, as we have not and will not look up her picture). We also readily concede that many folks simply need to dress with greater care for themselves and with better regard for the fact that they will be in a public setting. Still, taking and publishing pictures of the unknowing and unwilling simply as an attempt at humor is, to say the least, merely childish and sophomoric. A decent respect for others, even if they do not appear to merit it, ought by itself to discourage the practice.

At the risk of sounding like your mother, would you want your mother treated that way? Then perhaps we as a society need to stop encouraging such behavior.