Privacy

A major challenge of living in a remote field camp with 5 other people is
privacy and personal space. Its a little like being back in the college
dorms, except now I have 3 roommates instead of one. When you are forced
into a situation like this, you begin to lose any concepts of true privacy.
The curtain separating me from the world feels like a wall, even though
every cough, fart, toss, turn, or accidental bang of the head on the
ceiling is easily heard. This small box, the size of a twin bed is my only
escape.

Now thats not to say that I am never alone, or that there aren't places I
can go to be alone. When I am out working, I am generally alone. When I
shower, or go to the outhouse, or work in the lab, its usually (hopefully)
just me. But these places aren't "mine." My bunk is mine and I have grown
to appreciate it.

That being said, coming into this situation, I had no expectations of
privacy. Its amazing how accepting you can be when your initial
expectations change. It is routine to stand in your underwear in full
public view, or to be stepping around other people's things to get to your
own. You minimize the amount of stuff you have out at all times because
theres just nowhere to put it. In addition to the general clutter of this
many people living on top of each other (literally- the beds are bunked),
you have to remember that these 5 other people are literally the ONLY human
contact you have for upwards of 5 months. Trust me when I say you get to
know each other real well. You know when someone isn't feeling great, when
they had weird, expired boxed indian food for lunch, or when they have to
go pee twice in one night. Its very personal.

The nice thing about people who live the field camp life routinely, as
everyone here does, is that nobody cares about privacy. Usually you know
someone's stomach is upset not just by the extra stench in the outhouse but
because they come back and tell you all about it. We have frequent
discussions about whether or not dinner last night caused anyone to get the
"meat sweats." Arguably, some of this likely also has to do with biologists
generally having pretty strong stomachs- we also frequently discuss seal
scats (worms and all!), penguin puke, and dead animals around the dinner
table.

So likely none of this is really all that surprising to anyone. Most of us
have been to summer camp, or spend time in a college dorm, or some similar
social setting where you couldn't escape the people around you and you felt
like your privacy was at best compromised. What is sometimes a surprising
revelation is to say that this is actually THE MOST PRIVATE I have ever
been in my life. My phone has not been connected to the internet or any
kind of cell network in 3.5 months. The computer I am currently typing this
on has NEVER once been connected to the internet. In these days of NSA,
Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. it is rare that anyone can say
that you are completely unconnected. Our satellite phone can't track my
movements. I haven't seen an online ad since before Halloween!

Of course, I can connect to a certain extent (phone and email), and I
suppose is someone really were inclined they could read these emails, but
nobody is spying on me here. When I hike up my hills looking for seals, I
can look around and not see a single person. Whats more, even though I know
5 people are hiding somewhere, those are the ONLY people for nearly 100
miles in any direction. Its a little trippy.

So i would challenge anyone reading this to look at your life and ask
yourself, how much privacy do you really have. This isn't a comment on the
benefits or dangers of the Google empire, I don't mind a certain amount of
my information being known and apps like Google Now can actually be pretty
handy. But just look around and ask yourself when was the last time you
were truly alone. I would also challenge you to try disconnecting sometime.
Even if its just an hour, or an afternoon, or a day. Leave the phone and
computer at home and just go outside, as far away from anyone else as
possible (without too much work, and maybe tell someone where you are going
ahead of time just in case…). And when you are out there, remind yourself
that for that brief moment, you get to just be you.