Surprise Cedar Valley - You're on Camera A LOT!

I talked about this on the air today - I went on a lovely 2+ mile walk around my neighborhood yesterday evening and enjoyed a beautiful Cedar Valley summer... erm, fall evening. I live and hence went for my walk in Cedar Falls near the Cedar River. As I walked a noticed someone's Ring camera (they had a sign that said 'smile, you're on camera - I didn't walk up to their door like a weirdo). It made me really think... 'how many times a day am I on camera every day?' Couple that with a new feature in Apple Maps on iOS 14 that tells you where red light cameras are and I began to do some research.

So first, I visited the website safety.com to help me get some hard numbers. What I came to realize was, it will really vary from person to person but, on average, we're on camera 30 times a day in the Cedar Valley. This does NOT include selfies, Instagram Live videos or any of that. Simply times someone who's not us, or a friend/co-worker/family member is filming us.

Here's the breakdown - the how, where, etc. First off, we're on camera a LOT when we drive. Between security cameras, traffic cameras and, of course, red light cameras. Next, at work. Now, if you're still working from home, or not at all, you're not experiencing this. But *most* jobs have a camera somewhere. Here at the studios, we're on camera for sure four time. Once when we enter the Black's Building, and when we leave, and at least twice in the parking ramp (as we come and go). If you take a lunch here, add two more time. If you work in retail... you're ALWAYS on camera. Oh, and speaking of, when you go shopping at Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee etc, you're on camera several more times. Then there's those Ring cameras like the one I encountered last evening.

All in all, that's roughly 30 times a day, or 210 times a week. But again, it will be slightly different depending on what you do each day, or week. Example, if you go to the Isle Casino, you're on camera the whole time! If you spend a day at a park, you're barely on camera at all. So, your results might be different. Oh, speaking of those red light cams, if you've forgotten where they are in Waterloo, here's a reminder: