Technology In George Orwell's 1984, By George Orwell

1984 Research Paper

Behind every technological device lies the government, yes the government is behind every device that Americans use. Ever considered to what extent we use our smartphones, smart screens, laptops? And how much information those devices gather from each individual. Where does that information go? And what would they want to do with that information? Devices these days like smartphones have become super computers at the palm of your hands, which can do so many tasks as taking pictures, making calls, text, surf the Web and track one's personal life. George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 comes to mind. Technology in present day society parallels close to that of Orwell’s vision in 1984. By comparison the telescreens to those of
Here the priority is to maintain track of each individual by keeping them ignorant. As mentioned before this is done by using the telescreens. This technology was developed by the party of ingsoc in order to maintain close supervision, and correct them from their “wrong doings” in real time. Winston states that “it was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wonder when you were in any public place...an improper expression on your face...was itself a punishable offense”(Winston, pg.62). Shows how their tracks an individual's expression in order to profile the kind of person they are, and prevent any form of rebellion. Orwell also demonstrates another form on how the party checks on their citizens, “in the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs...it was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows”(Orwell, pg.2). Once more another demonstration of the governments different use of
In the article “That's No Phone. That's My Tracker” explores just that. The government keeps track of millions of cellphone users by obtaining data from their calls and where they were made from. Then again the government isn't the only ones into data mining, companies also use smartphones to gather information to profile the kind of person you are. Paul Ohm a professor at the university of Colorado claims that “every year, private companies spend millions of dollars developing new services that track, store, and share the words, movements and thought of their customers”. Such services are the navigational apps, ads offering similar products of searches we've done before, recommendations of a certain place near you etc. The author argues that “it makes sense to call them what they are”. Meaning to accept that our smartphones are personal trackers at the size of our palm, literal gateways for the government and companies to mine data out of, and create these