The World of 1984: Was Orwell Right?

 While the Thought Police, Big Brother, and several other dystopian features of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four may seem far from realistic, we still managed to make ties to today. Many know of the numerous hearings for major social media companies accused of laundering information many consider to be personal. The inevitable question remains: what did Orwell get right?

    Even though we've only gotten through the first six chapters, I believe the answer to this question is an intimidating "a lot". In an age where information is a commodity, many have become concerned with the power held by the few who control it. As mentioned before, Facebook has suffered many lawsuits. Two American companies control almost 100% of American internet access. Our phones, while beneficial, can track us whether we like it or not. It's almost like Big Brother is the internet itself.

Comments

  1. L. MoffittFebruary 8, 2021 at 7:40 AM

    Yep. As people have noted, Bill Gates doesn't need to put a microchip in the vaccine. Big Brother Zuckerberg knows where we are and what we ate for lunch.

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  2. Rani RamrattanFebruary 8, 2021 at 7:44 AM

    I think this is a really accurate comparison of 1984 vs. the present. Your connection to big brother as the internet is interesting because while reading I saw him as the top of the social ladder. Much like people today with enough money and power you can make any scandal go away and big brother has this control. This is similar to the internet because basically everything is found on the internet, but does it have the power to alter what's seen and found by users

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 8, 2021 at 7:50 AM

    I definitely agree that there are many parallels between our internet and the information control/surveillance of 1984. The main difference, in my opinion, is that (as far as we know) these large companies are mostly benevolent, and the creepiest thing they do is simply for the purposes of advertising and not the purposes of people-controlling. Still, it's worrying to consider how fast that could change...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. L. MoffittFebruary 8, 2021 at 8:05 AM

      I disagree that they are mostly benevolent. I wouldn't say they are malevolent, but they are mostly out to make money. In that sense they are "people-controlling" because they want to control our patterns of purchasing -- as well as what they pay their employees.

      Delete

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