A Comparison Of Technology In George Orwell's '1984'

Warning: your technology may be working against you. Our technological devices are seen everywhere and before we know it, they will control every aspect of our lives. This discussion has been discussed a plethora of times before. Such as George Orwell, author of the novel “1984.” According to Orwell’s novel, as new technology is developed, the more accessible it’ll be to control us. Who are these people controlling us you may ask? Well, that could be a long list of people. Some examples include the government, advertisers, hackers, corporations and more. The parallels of the technology we see today and the technology we see in Orwell's novel is undeniable. The parallels of our technology to the technology of 1984 include the infamous telescreen,

Not only would the telescreen be a tv of today but also our own phones. Our phones have the ability to track our every move using the gps trackers that are implemented into their hardware in case of it getting stolen or lose. According to the article “That’s No Phone. That’s My Tracker,” its states, “thanks to the explosion of GPS technology...these devices are also taking note of what we buy...how much money we have in the bank, whom we text and email...and more” (Maas and Rajagopalan, 2012). This parallels Orwell’s “1984” technology with the telescreen. In “1984” it states, “the telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it...he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment” (Orwell, page 3). The similarities between the telescreen and our on mobile devices are

In Orwell’s dystopian society, we are introduced to a new language called Newspeak. Newspeak is, in simple terms, the dumbing down of our own vocabulary and making the language seem more positive. For example, instead of something being bad, it would be “superungood”. Just as the novel states, “Take ‘good,’ for instance. If you have a word like ‘good,’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well...if you want a stronger version of ‘good,’ what sense is there in having..useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning...” (Orwell, page 51). Now, you may ask, ‘how does newspeak parallel with our own society?’ Well, look at it this way, if you were to go ask a millennial anything using anything over a 9th grade vocabulary level, odds are they are not going to know what that means. From an article called “The Dumbing Down of a Generation”, states, College boards have been revamped, eliminating vocabulary "not in everyday use." And their scores have gone down, precipitating the "dumbing down" of the test” (Agress,