ELECTRONIC VOYEURISM IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Man is a social animal. Though he is born as an individual human being, his survival rests on the societal interactions which begin with his family first. Growing with the age, he comes in contact with other members of the society and thereafter a process of knowing each other starts. Every member of the group, small or big eagerly wants to know more and more about the other members of the group. Social scientist, Erving Goffman, in his monumental work, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life," has described the situation as such: “When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio- economic status, his conception of self, his attitude towards them, his competence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it." Thus, it can be safely stated that man is curious by nature. "Though curiosity is a constant element in social life, and even gives rise to aggressive efforts to penetrate other people's secrets, many social scientists have observed a rise in recent decades of a particular and dangerous form of curiosity, to which the term “Voyeurism" has been applied." J.C. Coleman in his pioneering work, Abnormal  Psychology and Modern Life, has observed that "as a clinical term employed in abnormal psychology, voyeurism refers, of course, to in individual's desire to obtain sexual gratification by viewing another's sexual organs or the sexual intercourse of others."