Hitler’s technological advancements made during World War II influenced the dystopian culture in 1984 and is modernized today. George Orwell in 1984 was motivated by the creative German technologies. Not only did this inspire the book, but a whole future culture as well. 1984 is a crazy society when compared to the United States. Technology and modernization in the book 1984, inspired by World War II advancements, restrict the character’s privacy while still being compared and contrasted in today’s world. Technology in 1984 limits the character’s ability to look the way that they want, make decisions that they want to, and think for themselves. To lead off, every citizen in 1984 is always being watched. “Big Brother is Watching You” (Orwell …show more content…
The technological practices of 1984 in many ways can not be seen today. “What was even worse than having to focus his mind on a series of niggling jobs was the need to conceal his agitation from the telescreen” (Orwell 95). In the book, everywhere that the characters or citizens would go, they would be tracked and recorded. In comparison, nobody in today’s world, with the exception of prisoners and targeted people, is literally watched by every move made every second of the day. People go missing every day in modern times and the government has no way of locating them in the sense that this person is in this spot right now. The closest example of exact tracking today would be social media. “Snapchat is updating its in-app map to help users keep track of places they’ve visited, and where they may want to go next. An update rolling out today adds a new “Places” section to the map, with educated sections for recommendations, locations you’ve visited and “favorites” to remember.” (Bell 1). Snapchat tracks its users throughout the day so that they can see who is where in the world. It now also tells users where you …show more content…
Many technological advances prior to 1984 have influenced Orwell’s ideas portrayed in the book. To lead off, new inventions weren’t thought of as being related to the 1984 society. “Orwell's telescreen was based in the technologies of television pioneered prior to World War II and could hardly be seen as science fiction” (Groening 2). George Orwell used the generic, new at the time, TV as inspiration and developed his ideas by using his wide imagination. This thought of putting a watching face on the TV was brilliant by Orwell as this came long before any Facetime or Skype technology was even imagined. To add on, early Nazi technology gave Orwell more ideas in writing his novel. “In the 1930s Germany had a working videophone system in place and television programs were already being broadcast in parts of the United States, Great Britain and France” (Groening 3). The Germans inspired Orwell with their invention of the videophone technology. The 1930 technology brings up a projection of the other caller as they communicate through a cable telephone. Big Brother originated from the Germans who would use this as spyware and even