Set your story in a society where everyone is constantly aware of unwanted surveillance.

Posted in Dystopian on Jan 20, 2023

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 27 stories

“Hey Streamer” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #182

With any luck I’ll be able to eat today. The food court of the Silver Gardens Mall is notorious for the greasy factory produced shit that corporations insist is technically edible, but a bottom feeder like me doesn’t have much choice.I see the place is packed with squirming bodies. Seniors, students, families. Lots of have-people. A band of high school boys throwing fries at each other. They don’t even know they’re haves. A couple more years and they’ll learn.All of this, under the watchful eyes of the PanoptiSafe surveillance system. Beady ...

107 comments 107

Read story

“My Apology to You for Camp Crescendo” by Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #182

Content warning: Themes/mentions of physical abuse and death***I apologize in advance. For the lateness of this, and for any details I get wrong. Twenty years has been nothing but one long tidal wave, crashing onto the beach of my memory. I can never quite recall what all I told you out there, how much of myself I let you see. I only know for certain how it all ended.***Camp Crescendo looked like any other summer camp you'd find in Iowa, and maybe that was the problem. Not as though I'd been to any other summer camp. But I imagined, as Mr. A...

58 comments 58

Read story

“Sunset in Burma” by Laurel Hanson

Submitted to Contest #182

Note: I have retained the historically correct place names, though they have since changed.I promised myself I would tell this story when I came to America in 1974. And I tried. But then I found out that most people didn’t know Burma was a country in the first place. I couldn’t tell a story about what was happening in a country that didn’t even exist in their mental geography. That’s something people can’t hear.To be fair, I didn’t hear what I was being told either, even though I was there. Not until a letter travelled halfway round the...

38 comments 38

Read story

“New Eden” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #182

“You are entering New Eden’s demerit-free zone,” the voice on the tannoy system announced. “For your own safety, all demerit-positive citizens must turn back now… Remember, rations are a privilege. Demerits are a scourge.” I hear these repetitive warnings day after day after so many others, that I’ve lost count. They are a constant reminder of the oppressive regime’s total control of the populace. The long line of green-overalled men and women, shuffling slowly past the automated scanner, share a mutual fear of the machine that probes their ...

29 comments 29

Read story

“I KNOW YOU SEE ME” by Helen Karas

Submitted to Contest #182

I see all. I am poised in many places. In the stores downtown. In your phones and watches. In your world I will always see you. You. You who works the days and nights at an office building, high up over the world. I see you through the glass from a bird's eye view. It is not something I haven't seen before. Every day I see you. And you knew it. Everyone knew it. I see all people. I watch them sometimes. I prefer you, though. You, a simpleton of the metropolis. Like a field of flowers. Like how all of them are the same to those superior few...

8 comments 8

Read story

“Influenced.” by Hilary R. Glick

Submitted to Contest #182

Skimming through today’s Featured Filters, I smile, then frown, then purse my lips and blow a kiss into the smart mirror. I spend fifteen minutes tilting my chin and twirling my body, examining the different filters’ effects on all the angles of my face and figure, eventually settling on “Retro Sunrise”, a golden glow that illuminates my skin, smooths my wrinkles and blemishes, extends my lashes, and bleaches the tips of my dark blonde hair to a shimmering ombre sunrise of creamy yellows and soft orange. It is a very conservative look; no bo...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Grave New World” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #182

“With technology tracking us everywhere we go, “cosplay” may be our best defense against surveillance” Annalee NewitzDear Violet, 06/03/2055I hope you are well and happy. I wish I’d emigrated to New Zealand when you did. Americans can’t get asylum anywhere! So I’m in the same little house at the edge of Detroit where you and I grew up. It is much safer in this part of the country. Florida is practically gone and is almost an island. People left Florida in droves, mostly old folks like you and me, and migrated to nearby states, which are unha...

14 comments 14

Read story

“Beat You with a Shovel” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #182

Content Warning: Threat of impending doomNo matter where we are, Uncle Julio always ends up the center of attention. He’s not trying to be the center of attention, yet it happens all the same. At his bar and grill, he usually sits at the same corner of the bar, with a group of laughing, talking friends who go silent if he leaves them for only a minute. At the bars in the town where he grew up, people congregate like moths around a porch light, slapping him on the back as the Packers game blares in the background. At my Grandfather’s house, w...

9 comments 9

Read story

“Dinner Party” by Jon Burge

Submitted to Contest #182

Jake heaved himself out of the deep passenger seat of Paul’s rented sportscar and sighed heavily. Paul had just parked the car by himself to avoid the confusion that might come with knowing whether or not he needed to tip the valet. Even though Paul was much better at pretending, he knew that both he and Jake were out of their element, and he didn’t want the rest of the world to see an awkward interaction. Paul climbed out of the driver’s seat much more nimbly, adjusted his black bowtie, and swung the car door shut with the flourish of...

2 comments 2

Read story

“One Day In the Nursery” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #182

One Day in the Nursery Willy: “God dammit! Do they ever turn the #%&! lights off around here?! How the hell am I supposed to get any sleep?!” Nate: “Do you eat with that mouth?! Watch your language, Willy! There are ladies present.” Gert: “Knock it off, Nate. This is the 21st Century. We don’t need any of your machismo-laced, pretentious bravado to protect us. We can take care of ourselves.” Prissy: “I think it’s sweet, Nate. It reminds me of Sir Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table.” Willy: “Hey, Pri...

7 comments 7

Read story

“Augmentations & Ice Cream” by Cora Weaver

Submitted to Contest #182

Note: This story contains brief references to mental health (intrusive thoughts), death, and self-harm. On the day of Raven’s fifteenth birthday, the monitor was installed in her right arm. It was standard procedure, and it had been in place for as long as anyone could remember. Even those who were part of the upper class, such as Raven, were unable to avoid the augmentation. Fifteen for less than a day, Raven sat in her chair and watched the monitor move under her skin. It provided a constant pain, one she had been told would never truly...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Breakout 2.0” by Jack Kimball

Submitted to Contest #182

Slinging low over the trees, the Bell V-s80 Valor helicopter angles in, a lethal locust descending in a joyless moon. Rotors tilting to hover configuration, she banks into the landing strip. General Huxley Longfellow, in fatigues, steps to the tarmac and salutes the two aids on the ground. Running low, they dash to a Quonset hut a hundred yards away. As they enter the room twenty men stand to attention while four civilians huddle at the end of a long conference table. The general, after a lifetime in the military, recognizes when t...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Under The Surface.” by Anna Komora

Submitted to Contest #182

Everyone knows of the cameras in the streetlamps and on the tops of every doorway. On certain benches or decorative pots filled with plants. They are aware they have no red light, or shuttering lens to announce their presence, but are there all the same. Most try to turn away from them, as naturally and innocently as they can. Often it is useless, and all the seemingly meaningless movement does is put them in front of a separate camera, resulting in a tingle that goes up their spine. These small rebellions against security protocols ...

2 comments 2

Read story

“وحدة الوقاية (The Prevention Unit)” by Adam El Nabli

Submitted to Contest #182

(Brigadier General Mohamed) العميد محمدI started out in the police force about 10 years ago. Never asked why once. I always figured my superiors knew what was best. ملازم، نقيب، رائد، مقدم، عقيد، عميد، لواء..(Lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier general...)That’s all I knew. That's all I know. The more stars and swords you have on your shoulder, the more authority you have. And the more authority you have, the more you know. I had to follow orders. No matter what, orders were orders. Orders were my law. The...

6 comments 6

Read story

“Social Conscious” by Kenneth Kendall

Submitted to Contest #182

Sharon’s gut wrenched when the thought bubble appeared on her screen, “Would you like to reconsider your search request?” She typed, “I have a code.” “Enter code.” “8836473b74” “The Premier has personally selected the following resources for your learning.” Nine articles about euthanasia appeared on the screen. Before the title of each was the crisscrossed infinity logo of The Premier. Sharon reviewed all the titles and clicked on “The Premier chooses Grisentia over self.” Once on the landing page, she saw that it was an article from The Yum...

12 comments 12

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a home alarm system going off.

Dramatic – 49 stories

Write a story where someone’s paranoia is justified.

Mystery – 78 stories

Write about a character who wishes they could just disappear — and then they do.

Mystery – 50 stories

Start your story with someone entering a taxi and saying ‘follow that car.’

Dramatic – 33 stories

Contest #182

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Feeling Watched

$250

Prize money

237

Contest entries

154

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 27, 2023 EST

Won by Liv Chocolate 🏆

Title: Careful—You’ll Slip, Fall, and Die on Those Slippery Slopes

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Set your story in a society where everyone is constantly aware of unwanted surveillance.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 27 stories

“Hey Streamer” by Michał Przywara

“My Apology to You for Camp Crescendo” by Zack Powell

“Sunset in Burma” by Laurel Hanson

“New Eden” by Chris Campbell

“I KNOW YOU SEE ME” by Helen Karas

“Influenced.” by Hilary R. Glick

“Grave New World” by Patricia Merewether

“Beat You with a Shovel” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

“Dinner Party” by Jon Burge

“One Day In the Nursery” by Murray Burns

“Augmentations & Ice Cream” by Cora Weaver

“Breakout 2.0” by Jack Kimball

“Under The Surface.” by Anna Komora

“وحدة الوقاية (The Prevention Unit)” by Adam El Nabli

“Social Conscious” by Kenneth Kendall

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a home alarm system going off.

Write a story where someone’s paranoia is justified.

Write about a character who wishes they could just disappear — and then they do.

Start your story with someone entering a taxi and saying ‘follow that car.’

Contest #182

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

237

Contest entries

154

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: