1984 By George Orwell

Safety over self, convenience over freedom. 1984 by George Orwell presents a grim outlook on a dystopian future, a future where there is no trust among people and no way to express yourself due to Big Brother. This ever-present omnipotent state propaganda piece is used to control the masses. Big Brother watches through telescreens, uses children as spies against their own parents, and considers your face and thoughts free to be punished. In this world, society is broken into two sections; the proles and the party. The proles are eighty-five percent of the population, yet they live in oblivion and squalor. Unaware of the machine that turns them, unable to question the system that keeps them constantly beaten down. They are the factory and service

A panopticon is a prison set up where there is a solitary guard tower that surveils the cells that are set up in a circle around it. The prisoners never know when they are being watched but follow the rules anyways because if they get caught, they will be punished. The cells are "many small theatres, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible" (Foucault 5). The use of the words "theater" and "actor" is very important because it shows that the prisoners in the cells are merely performing what the perceived rules are. They are not acting as though they would if no one was watching them. Due to this, the people in charge are able to keep them in control. This is very similar to the use of telescreens in 1984. They are constantly on, constantly watching, yet you do not know if or when they are watching you, only that there is a possibility that they are watching you. People are unable to express themselves or their thoughts. Instead, they perform what is asked of them by the party. Although there are no laws in this world, there are expectations that will be punished if not conformed to. This is displayed in one of Winston's work tasks in which he is asked to change an article. There is no exact information about what the party exactly wants you to say, but he has to make an "estimate of what the party wanted you to say" (38). This is

Everyone is attempting to gain access to your information in order to track you and manipulate you. According to Foucault, surveillance is based on a "system of permanent registration" (Foucault). For companies, this is in order to sell things to you. There is a case where Target figured out a teen girl was pregnant before she even realized herself and started advertising baby products to her. Target "assigns every customer a Guest ID number, tied to their credit card, name, or email address […] stores a history of everything they've bought and any demographic information" (Hill). Using data mining, they are able to give certain guests a "pregnancy prediction score" and start advertising baby products. They send coupons that those who are pregnant would want. People began to notice this and rightfully were furious. Target still does this to an extent, even after being called out, but they have made it more subtle. This idea of data mining is similar to the ideas discussed in the film, Citizenfour about Edward Snowden. Snowden states that nowadays, people know they are being watched and censor what they search on Google and do online. On Tik Tok, there is a reoccurring joke about people interacting with the FBI agent that is watching them through their screen. While it would most likely be an NSA agent rather than an FBI agent, this displays the