Examples Of Technology In 1984

Technology and the World of 1984

As technology advances, the privacy of people’s everyday lives worsens. Likewise, in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the reader follows Winston’s daily struggle against a totalitarian government that uses advanced technology to monitor and supervise the population of Oceania. In this fictional world, the political party known as INGSOC controls the population through limited access to information and fear. In the same way, as technology advances, people’s everyday lives are getting closer and closer to the terrifying world of 1984. Examples such as internet censorship, internet privacy, and the emergence of artificial intelligence determine that everyone is heading closer to a dystopian-esque world. One of the factors that advance the world closer to a totalitarian government is internet censorship. To see this one simply has to look overseas at the country of China. According to the Council of Foreign Relations, “Bloomberg news service, the New York Times, and other major international publications have periodically been blacked out.” The Chinese government claims that the reason for their news blackouts is that it poses a threat to political stability. Using this

As companies store and collect data, everything one does on the internet becomes recorded. In August 2019 according to NPR news, Facebook leaked the data of 530 million users without even notifying them. This breach of privacy essentially means that nothing is private and all the data is recorded somewhere. Similarly, in the novel 1984, the government of Oceania limits the privacy of its citizens to the point where telescreens are monitoring them practically 24/7. In present times this monitoring can be akin to people’s cell phones monitoring their activities endlessly. Due to the ever-decreasing internet privacy, the world is getting closer to the ideals of the INGSOC