Surveillance In 1984 By George Orwell

George Orwell’s 1984 showed us a sign of how politicians and companies use technology to control the people of this world to the point where you can’t even be peaceful in your own home. Governments will use many tactics to control people, some tactics are more effective than others. There is one thing that puts the government over the people, and that is surveillance. Political leaders will use surveillance to keep an eye on all their civilians and instill fear into them, just like 1984. According to David Lyon, “It cannot be stressed enough that the issues discussed are not minor, transient, or contingent. Surveillance culture is one dimension of a highly significant social, technological, and political-economic transformation that is unavoidably

Surveillance in concept is a good thing, having someone always watch your back in case something bad happens. David Lyon states that, “On the first, familiarity, surveillance has become a taken-for-granted aspect of life, from loyalty cards in the supermarket, to ubiquitous public and private space cameras, and to security routines in airports, sports arenas, and many other sites. This normalization and domestication of surveillance appears to account, in part, for the general level of compliance (Murakami, Wood, and Webster 2009). As for fear, this has become more marked since 9/11” (Lyon 1)”. Surveillance has become a normal everyday part of our lives, but just because it's normal doesn't mean that people aren't afraid. 9/11 increased the amount of surveillance causing people to be weary and afraid. So surveillance should be a good thing right? Well many governments don’t do this, just like the one in 1984 surveillance is used as a fear

Ana Valverde Gonzalez suggests that, "Search engines and social media, together with their recommendation and personalization algorithms, are centrally culpable for the societal and ideological polarisation experienced in many countries: we no longer encounter a balanced and healthy information diet, but only see information that targets our established interests and reinforces our existing worldviews" (Gonzalez 1)”. The Internet is more focused on our wants instead of our needs, causing us to be more vulnerable and weak. This causes the government to be able to sway our opinions more easily. We as people are also at fault, we tend to accept things a bit too easily. Gonzalez strengthens this opinion by saying, “What's more, we actively fight to maintain our narratives in the face of information that could corrupt them. It is often easier to ignore facts, or look for reasons to discount them, than it is to remake our narrative. (Gonzalez 1).” People nowadays are much more accepting of facts whether they are right or wrong. The reason is that social media has shown us so much of our worldview, it made us not think as much and more prone to accept facts that may not be