Technology in Nineteen Eight-Four, Essay Example

In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell presents a dark, terrifying vision of the future. In Orwell’s book the future world is controlled by an all-powerful government ruled over by Big Brother.  The main character, Winston Smith, never sees Big Brother in real life, but he and everyone else who live in this world are constantly reminded that they are being watched every moment of their lives. All around the city there are signs and posters that say “Big Brother is Watching You.” The population is fed a constant diet of propaganda telling them that Big Brother is a kind, loving man who watches over them to keep them safe and protect them from the threat of war and the evil Goldberg. One of the main ways that this propaganda is repeated to the people is through the technology of the telescreens. These are giant television screens that can never be turned off, and that can also be used to watch the public and private lives of the citizens. In many ways, Orwell’s book predicted the way that technology like this would become part of daily life, but even Orwell could not have predicted how much technology would intrude into the lives of so many ordinary people.

One of the most significant aspects of the telescreen is that it can never be turned off. Because it can also be used to watch people, this means that Winston Smith and all the other citizens of Oceania never know if and when the government is spying on them. As Winston Smith says in the book:

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live–did live, from habit that became instinct–in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.(Orwell, 1949)

The telescreen in Nineteen Eight-Four is in many ways very similar to the Internet. The news stories of the past few years have revealed to the public that the U.S. government is capable of spying on the activities of people, and can find out personal information easily and secretly. Just like Winston Smith, ordinary citizens in the real world have no way of knowing whether or not the government is spying on them.  There is one very significant difference between the telescreen and the Internet, however.  In Orwell’s book the people are watched over by the telescreen because they cannot turn it off. In the real world, people willingly use the Internet even though they know they could be spied on. The Internet has become a central part of how people do business and also provided entertainment and distractions that make billions of people go online every day (Naugton, 2012).

In a way, the technology of the real world is like an inside-out version of the technology in Nineteen Eight-Four. In the book, Winston Smith uses the memory hole to make information disappear. According to the book, “he who controls the past controls the future.” In the real world, the Internet does not make information disappear. Instead, it makes all information available, which can make it difficult or impossible to tell the difference between what is fact and what is fiction (Johnson, 2008). In the novel, history can be rewritten by flushing the truth down the memory hole. In real life history can be rewritten just by posting something on the Internet. If there is no difference between fact and fiction then whoever controls the Internet controls the future.

Works cited

Gutenberg.net.au,. N. p., 2014. Web. 25 Jul. 2014.

Johnson, Nicholas. Are We There Yet?. 1st ed. Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu Press, 2008. Print.

Naughton, John. From Gutenberg To Zuckerberg. 1st ed. New York, N.Y.: Quercus, 2012.Print.