Harrison Bergeron: Is Technology Controlling You?

Is Technology Controlling You? Imagine a world run by technology, the government is a computer, the police are robots. It’s a world where people have no power or purpose, every job has been replaced by technology. Is this really a world in which we want to live or in which we want our children grow up? Do we want to be replaced by technology? Technology was invented in order to help us thrive, not to help us punish others, and definitely not to hold us back. Stories such as The Maze Runner by James Dashner and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., reveal what may happen if technology is used improperly. In both these books, technology in used in order to control and at times harm citizens. If we do not do something, this may be our future.
This is revealed in “Harrison Bergeron”, a dystopian short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. This 2081 version of the United States is built on the idea of equality. Although today we strive for equality, this futuristic country uses their love equality and their technology to hold their citizens back and achieve equality by ensuring that no one is different in any way . Through these restrictions Vonnegut reveals how technology is being used to hold us back and not help us. In this society, citizens are restricted to being treated, acting, thinking, and looking the same. The people are turned into living robots, as they are handicapped in an attempt to be made equal. This story featured both George and Hazel Bergeron. Hazel is of average intelligence, “And George while his intelligence was way above normal had a mental handicap radio in his ear.” Vonnegut reveals the flaws of the society through his constant use of dialogue. Vonnegut writes “‘I forget,” she said. “Something real sad on television.’” He writes this in order to reveal that the use of technology in order to hold others back, makes it virtually impossible for our society to thrive. In this story George is handicapped so that his intelligence is average and equal everyone else. Limiting how George thinks makes it impossible for him to think more deeply and improve his society. Our differences are what allow us advance our society, by thinking more
This is revealed in The Maze Runner, a dystopian story written by James Dashner. This futuristic society sends boys into a giant maze every month. In this maze the boys face mechanical beasts and find themselves in many moribund situations. These mechanical beasts are described as, “Part animal, part machine... Its body resembled a gigantic slug, sparsely covered in hair and glistening with slime, grotesquely pulsating in and out as it breathed.” These beasts were placed into the maze in order to punish the Gladers for trying to escape. Dashner uses his imagery and these monster in order show how the Creators use technology in order to punish the Gladers for no reason. Dashner constantly describes the pain this use of technology has brought to these boys. Upon the boy's escape from the maze, their first observations were of,“The people who’d taken their lives away from them. The Creators.” These boys were forced out into this maze without memory and surrounded by ferocious beasts, they were forced to leave everything they knew without realizing. This situation deprived these boys of their childhood, their families, and their sense of safety. The Creators used technology for the wrong reasons. They chose to use technology in order to punish innocent boys and to steal their