Shelter: Security

What shelter means to me...

     While brainstorming in class, one of the things that my mind immediately went to, was security. I can say with confidence that being raised by the captain of a police force and a homeland security officer made me an extremely anxious and paranoid person. I'm constantly worried about my own safety, even if there's no true sign of a threat. Home is somewhere that I can feel safe and release my anxieties, so an invasion of that space is terrifying to me, whether it's criminals, or even something paranormal. Growing up, I always felt very safe when my parents were home, but if I was alone and heard any noise out of the ordinary, I would turn on every light in the house and sit in the living room with the biggest knife I could find in the kitchen drawer. Now, as a young adult and living on my own, I've had to come to terms with feeling safe living on my own in a city 1,000 miles away from my family.
     Thinking into the future, I can imagine that security of living spaces will increase and improve as technology continues to improve. Beginning with more people using their smart phones to connect to surveillance cameras in their home, I could see home security going as far as to utilize things like facial recognition technology to make sure that someone entering a house, has been authorized to do so, or will otherwise contact authorities. I would definitely imagine this kind of technology being used by very wealthy people rather than middle class or lower, unless someone was paranoid about home invasions. Feeling safe is so subjective, and I think it'll be interesting to see what kind of measures that people will take to feel safe in their homes in the future.