Can you remember how we used to play on the streets when we were little? Can you still remember that ancient tree in the neighborhood that you used to climb up with your friends? When we were children, our friends could get in and out of our house like it was their own. We could do the same with their houses. Every house in the neighborhood was welcoming, and our parents didn’t need to worry about our safety.
But this illusion of safety is all gone now. Durable custom wrought iron gates across Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and many other cities are the standard now. People build fortresses out of their homes because of concerns of privacy, security, and intrusion. Although crime has broadly declined over the past years, people have become more obsessed about their need for more security measures to be put in place.
The idea of a home is that it is a person’s private space. It is their sanctuary from all the evils of the world. They should be able to control it. They should be the one to decide who enters it. There’s a primitive fear about intrusions and invasions because the home should be the one place where you can feel safe and secure.
Social Media and the Lack of Privacy
That fear is magnified by what you see on social media and celebrities’ lives every day. If the likes of Kim Kardashian, with her personal assistants and bodyguards, cannot feel safe in an ultra-private residence in Paris, then no one is safe. More than anyone else, celebrities and famous personalities have become obsessed about their privacy to the point that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, the perpetrator of sharing every nitty-bitty detail about your life, purchased neighboring properties to make sure that no one will get close enough him and his family.
Social media also means that people now know what a celebrity’s home looks like. Any criminal can research on Google what Leonardo DiCaprio’s house looks like, figure out the address, and go there to steal. They now have the means to infiltrate the most private of a person’s material ownership: his home.
Insecurity and Inadequacies
Many times, people feel that they are powerless to protect their homes and their families. Generally, it is not the ultra-wealthy who are at risk of burglary and home invasion. When it happens to them, it becomes sensationalized, but it also raises questions as to a normal person’s capability to protect his home. If the likes of Kim Kardashian can feel unsafe in this ultra-expensive residence with topnotch security, how much unsafe is an ordinary person in their gateless and fenceless home?
Unfortunately, instead of addressing these concerns, most governments are concerned about encouraging individuals to own homes for their retirement age. They market owning private homes as a form of security when, in fact, many homeowners are now feeling insecure about their space. If you ever feel insecure about your home, you should look into gated communities, security cameras, and infrared scanners that can detect movement across your lawn.