Big Auntie

It’s sneaky, the way in which the BBC, so much regarded as part of the family as to be nicknamed ‘Auntie’, has introduced the need to login (or register) whenever you want to listen to something on iPlayer. Maybe I’m doing something wrong because the alert message assures me I will be kept logged in, and that I should only have to login once. But even that is once too much. After all, until now, we’ve had the chance to listen again to whatever we fancy with very little fuss and almost instantly. That freedom feels very different if you have to rummage around in your memory for the password and then ensure you’ve keyed it in correctly — and especially if you consider that this means the no-longer-quite-so-benign Auntie will now be able to trace not just your tastes, inclinations and habits of mind but also your daily routine.

The technology behind digital listening is amazing. We take so much of it for granted, the speed, the accessibility, the flexibility, while the electronic wizards who make this all possible are not paid enough or acknowledged enough (do we even know their names?) for the ways in which they have transformed our everyday lives. But it’s worth pondering. Once upon a time we could listen again without being monitored. Now Big Auntie has the potential to listen in on our every connection.

At first I thought little of the change, assuming it would soon become automatic, the password remembered on my computer, the bother and time it takes of no great concern. But every time I’m obliged to key in the password, it makes me think about its implications. How we listen is being changed. How we receive radio is altering.