Technology continues to shape our lives and influence our society. Mankind has become so dependent on technology that one cannot imagine living without his or her smartphone or laptop. No one will debate that this digital renaissance has not created a more productive, mobile, and efficient culture, but at what price? In the novel 1984, George Orwell uses technology to create a world in which citizens are constantly under surveillance by the government. The constant manipulation and control over others is recognized and repeated in the phrase “Big Brother Is Watching You” throughout the novel. As Orwell predicted, in today’s high-tech era, people have given up their personal freedoms and right to privacy, while passively letting government and big business surveillance expand. Through the use of telescreens and monitoring by the Thought Police, the citizens of Oceania are subjects to a totalitarian government, stripped of their self-expression and individuality. As our society starts to replace routine tasks with digital technology, such as ubiquitous security cameras, social media, and the infinite storage pool of data known as the ‘Cloud’, we are allowing the government and large corporations to chip away at our own individual freedoms.
Surveillance technology in the novel is used to manipulate the citizens of Oceania. In 1984, the telescreen is a tool used to detect instances of rebellion. It cannot be turned off. The telescreen symbolizes the constant monitoring of citizens and how it can be misused instead of utilized to better society. It was “terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself — anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense” (Orwell 55). This method of surveillance was extremely effective in the novel, as citizens feared punishment if they were caught committing a thoughtcrime. Security cameras record nearly every inch of our society twenty-four hours a day. They are used to solve routine crimes such as traffic violations or even serious offenses such as robbing a bank. Many have said that the types of policing tactics seen in the novel far surpass the quality of surveillance that is present today. However, the argument can be made that our modern-day society is getting closer and closer to Orwell’s prediction. No matter where you turn, it seems as if a camera is always recording you. Many people are caught on cameras over seventy times per day, and they do not even realize it. This monitoring happens mostly in workplaces, shops, and other public places with surveillance cameras installed. These surveillance methods were initially put in place to deter the bad guys, but we find this technology beginning to breach our personal privacy. Today, most taxis are fitted with cameras as a security measure to identify unsafe or disruptive passengers and also those who exit the vehicle without paying their fare. An increasing number of private car owners are becoming drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft. These people are also installing cameras in their cars for the same reasons. The legality of this varies from state to state, but it is unnerving that there is not only video of people in the hands of the government but also in the hands of private citizens. These videos do not require consent. Much of the time, when in a taxi or Uber, people may be talking on their phones. These conversations are also being recorded. Another controversial area of video surveillance that encroaches upon your privacy is traffic cameras. The cameras are intended to prevent accidents, keep people safe, and act as virtual traffic police. Several states now use this technology as a revenue stream. It is not uncommon in some states to receive a speeding ticket in the mail, even if you are never pulled over by a police officer. You receive a photo with the date and time stamp of when the violation took place along with your penalty or fine. In the novel, the phrase “Big Brother Is Watching You” is repeated to remind the citizens of Oceania that they are constantly being watched. In our modern society, no one is reminding us that we are being observed more now than ever.
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Observation by the government is not limited to only video surveillance. For example, in the novel, the Thought Police are not only protectors of the law, but they are also invasive predators. They do not only monitor what you do and say but also police your thoughts. The Thought Police are unique in the way that they go undetected in society, watching the citizens’ every move. Any hesitation or lack of enthusiasm or patriotism is considered a thoughtcrime. In the novel, Parsons is arrested for committing a thoughtcrime in his sleep, where his words reflect his true inner thoughts: “Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that’s a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit — never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep. Do you know what they heard me saying? … ‘Down with Big Brother!’ Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I’m glad they got me before it went any further” (Orwell 206). The citizens would succumb to these tactics in fear of punishment. By controlling an individual’s range of thought, these crimes will eventually cease to exist. As Syme states, “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no words in which to express it” (Orwell 47). Censorship drives conformity. Social media sites have changed the way we interact with one another today. Sites like Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram make it simple to stay connected by sharing statuses, pictures, videos, or details about your day. Internet platforms such as Facebook have become the newspaper of our generation. People use it as their means of getting up-to-date news and information. The Constitution protects our right to freedom of speech, but some media companies are caving into political pressure to restrict that right. In late 2019, Facebook announced its own version of the Supreme Court — a 40-member board that makes decisions on whether some user posts should be left up on the site or taken down. Those whose posts are removed feel that they are being excluded from one of the most important communication channels that we use today, and their freedom of speech is being censored. Because this is a private platform, the company is free to create content that reflects their personal beliefs and biases, as well as control what your profile page says about you. Facebook and others are crossing the boundary from a social media website to a more political forum manipulating messages. What’s most concerning is that we are allowing them to determine for us what is acceptable and unacceptable speech. In 2018, Facebook altered its algorithms claiming that this would prioritize more meaningful interactions. Critics were skeptical as users began to notice that they were actually seeing fewer posts from family and friends and more news feeds. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not mention that he was paying media outlets to create news videos. Campbell Brown, a former anchor on NBC and CNN, who now leads the news partnerships team at Facebook, spoke at a recent technology and publishing conference and said that “Facebook would be censoring news publishers based on internal biases” (Western Journal). As these social media giants become more and more powerful, we see them prioritize their own political and social agendas against competing opinions that they disagree with. When a social media empire like Facebook, which has approximately 2.5 billion active monthly users, controls its content through censorship, it begs the question, “Who is keeping the Facebook Thought Police honest?” Like the Thought Police in the novel, social media companies are watching their users’ activity, controlling what they can post and see. It is easy to manipulate a person when you know almost everything about them rather than someone you know nothing about.
In George Orwell’s Oceania, every aspect of a citizen’s life is monitored or recorded. The Party’s control of all media resulted in no real certainty of records: “And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain” (Orwell 38). Without regulation and oversight of our own data, we may not be too far away from this same level of control. The ‘Cloud’ is a huge interconnected network of powerful servers that perform services for businesses and for people. The largest ‘Cloud’ providers in the United States today are Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Any activity that takes place over an internet connection like data storage or processing takes place in the ‘Cloud’. Consider your home. Your alarm goes off on your cell phone, signaling that it is time to wake up, while your coffee begins to brew. After your shower, Alexa speaks to you with an updated weather and traffic report. Pulling out of the driveway, you turn on your home security system from your cell phone. The accessibility of all things relies on sensors embedded in a variety of devices to make your life much easier while, in turn, sharing a massive amount of personal information via cloud computing. All of that information is waiting to be taken by the government and other corporations interested in you. These sensors can detect information such as motion, fingerprints, audio, preferences, habits, and more. Businesses and governments are not only pulling information from adults, but also from children by monitoring every mouse click, keystroke, or hesitation when answering a question in their digital classrooms. Analysts can determine which children are stronger students, and which are slower learners. We are on a slippery slope when we are evaluating young students and their ability to succeed in life. Like Winston, we should fear the idea of being watched and examined like lab rats. His fear of rats represents his hatred of the constant observation by the Party. Once Winston is brought into questioning, he realizes that “for seven years, the Thought Police had watched him like a beetle under a magnifying glass. There was no physical act, no word spoken aloud, that they had not noticed, no train of thought that they had not been able to infer” (Orwell 247). With the magnitude of shared individual data available today, we can begin to see the similarities between companies like Amazon and Google and the Thought Police. In the case of Amazon and Google, these media giants claim to use this data to market products and services to you that help improve your life. The Thought Police, Big Brother’s Party enforcers, use this knowledge to prevent citizens from starting from the Party line, eliminating the possibility of individual thought. Amazon, Google, and the Thought Police are all working to control aspects of your routine. Albeit, not all for nefarious reasons, but all for their personal gain.
George Orwell’s view of how terribly wrong things can go for a society run by a government that alters people’s behavior, as well as their view of reality, comes as a powerful warning. Under the guise of technological advancement, our rights and freedoms are slowly being compromised. Many are willing to overlook this loss of freedom for the flexibility and efficiency that technology brings to daily life. We must ask ourselves, “Have we already given away too much freedom?” For one day, if we are not careful, we may find ourselves on a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks will be striking thirteen…
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