Technology leads society closer to Big Brother
By Matt Grantz, Assistant Editor
November 9 , 2011
 Personal computers, cell phones and GPS units are all relatively new technologies that many of us encounter in our everyday lives. These technologies have both a positive and a negative side. Having read the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and then considering the book’s message further as we discussed it in Honors English 12, I believe one very dark side to technology exists that I would like people to consider.
For those of you not familiar with the novel, English author George Orwell wrote “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in the late 1940s about a totalitarian dictatorship, called Oceania, that ruled Great Britain and the Americas in the year 1984. Oceania’s ruling party, known as IngSoc, controls the nation through fear and brutal repression. In this repressive system, IngSoc uses one key technology to monitor people and keep them in line. This technology is known as the telescreen and combines the technology of a television and a security camera, allowing the government to monitor people in their homes.
How this could fictional scenario possibly relate to computers, cell phones and GPS units? We obviously don’t have a telescreen in our homes, but we do have computers equipped with webcams. These webcams could allow the government to monitor us in much the same way as telescreens if our government were to flip to the “dark side.” Cell phones and GPS units give governments a tool that the Thought Police of Oceania didn’t even have. They allow the government to track our movements and find us anywhere we may be without following us in person. This method of tracking has already been used in “real life” and is often featured in popular culture.
Another device that we encounter every day is the security camera. By its very name, the security camera sounds innocent enough. But imagine a much more controlling state where the government decides to monitor us citizens. Every day we’re recorded on a camera.
Examine outside the main entrance to the high school or near the library entrance and you will find that you may have been recorded. Look the next time you go past the West Leechburg Park or the next time you enter a store and you’ll see that you’re being watched there too. Currently these cameras are used for the “good” purposes, and if you aren’t breaking the law, you’ll be fine. But, what happens if the government changes the rules, changes the laws so that merely speaking against the government and its leaders becomes a crime?
I must also point out that newer technologies also provide anti-totalitarian benefits. The Internet is a creation that would be extremely hard for the government to control. In the United States, it is a highly decentralized system. Thus, the Internet is a creation that allows people to communicate relatively freely over a longer period than media such as televisions or newspapers, which are more easily controlled.
The recent revolutions in Northern Africa have shown that Twitter and Facebook can be used to end dictatorships, but there is always the chance that they may actually be used to gain further control since it is easy for the government to gather data about a person’s entire life.
I realize that my view may seem paranoid, but, honestly, consider what even a semi-corrupt government could do with all the gadgets at its disposal. Additionally, consider what could a corrupt entity could do with all the information people post online on Facebook or Twitter, plus all the information, like credit card numbers and purchases, used online.
Remember that Big Brother may not be watching you now, but he could take an interest some day.
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