Manipulation In 1984

George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel that portrays a bleak future, where society is under the totalitarian control of “the Party”. The story begins in the year 1984, in a country called Oceania. The country is perpetually at war and the protagonist, Winston Smith, is a middle-aged man. Winston is an employee for the Party, where he rewrites historical records to match the Party’s version of the truth. At the start of the novel, Winston begins to rebel against the Party in secret, and keeps a journal; in it, he expresses his doubts and frustrations with the Party’s propaganda. Soon after, he meets Julia and falls in love; they begin their secret affair, which is an act of rebellion against the totalitarian government of Oceania. Their relationship,

Social Media platforms track users’ online activities, including their likes, dislikes, and browsing history, in order to provide personalized advertising. This creates a type of bubble of information for users, which is used to reinforce their own existing beliefs and biases and can lead to radicalization. The algorithms used by social media platforms are designed to keep users engaged and on the platform for as long as possible. This is achieved by presenting content that is most likely to generate engagement, such as emotionally charged content. This create a feedback loop, in which users are exposed to more and more extreme content over time. The film argues that social media companies have created a new form of capitalism based on the exploitation of personal data. Users’ data is treated as a commodity, which can be bought and sold by advertisers and other companies. Third party corporations monitor every interaction their customers have in order to continue to curate information and continue the cycle that benefits them so much; Jaron Lainer, a computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer, gave an interview, where he said “ And yet,…, anytime two people connect, the only way it’s financed is through a sneaky third person who’s paying to manipulate those two people…the very meaning of communication, the very meaning of culture, is manipulation,” ( “Social Dilemma”21:33). Every interaction online is heavily watched by these corporations and orchestrated to make the customer want to continue using the “product”. Similarly, to how in 1984, the Party monitors its citizens to keep them happy and complacent in the totalitarian government set in place, corporations monitor customers and provide them with content to keep them happy and complacent using the systems these corporations have created. The theme of surveillance and manipulation in the