As recently as four years ago, a Google search of “drones” or “unmanned aerial vehicles” would have largely returned news articles about targeted strikes in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq or Yemen. When I began writing about recreational, non-military drones in 2011, my colleagues and I had to use the modifier “domestic” before each use of the word “drone” in an article title, as public perception of the word “drone” was so ubiquitously grounded in the weaponized unmanned predators used by the military. News or opinion articles about “domestic” or “recreational” drones would frequently include some sort of introductory paragraph explaining that — no — the article was not insinuating that farmers, mapmakers or your neighbors were in possession of military hardware, but that the article referenced a different sort of non-weaponized “drone.”
Now, a basic Google search of “drones” returns links to hobby and tech websites advertising drones for sale, and the articles that follow are more likely to discuss “domestic” drones than targeted military strikes. The top result for a “drone” image search on Google was a picture of this octocopter, hosted on a Canadian website linking to various papers discussing the privacy implications of domestic drone use. And, on Monday, Jon Stewart ridiculed CNN’s coverage of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Selma, showing footage of multiple CNN anchors and correspondents congratulating themselves and their network for their novel use of a drone to obtain footage of the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge. Stewart chided the network, exclaiming, “Stop acting like you launched a space station…You got drone footage. Which we can now add to the 495,000 other drone footage videos on YouTube.”
Indeed, where a “drone” search on YouTube would have once returned a host of declassified videos of military strikes, the top results that I could see included a flyover of recent Spring Break party-goers at a Florida beach, hobbyists racing drones in the snow and a series of stress-test videos entitled “Game of Drones,” where hobbyists subject their drones to a gauntlet of increasingly brutal attacks from water cannons, flames and, finally, a shotgun blast to determine which unmanned aerial vehicles are the most indestructible. Public agencies can use these search results not only as a barometer for the proliferation and popularity of drone use, but as a way to stay abreast of the variety of ways they can be used. Knowing what’s being done, and what’s coming, can go a long way in making plans to ensure public safety.
Whatever the social or legal implications, modern drones have reshaped more than just our Internet search results — they have quickly become a part of our news, pop culture and everyday life.
