However, I believe that when it comes to advances in the technological field there was not much to predict ( since everything is improving every day) . The technology it's been part of the history of the world, but what it is extremely interesting to discuss is the relation between technology and the silent repression we are living in today's world. Here there are some points that I think Orwell tried to express in his novel and how they are connected to social media :
* InformationI am completely sure that most of the people know that using social networks is the easiest way in which governments and political parties can get information about us. However, the fact of knowing that does not prevent people to use this virtual platorms. This may be due to different factors, but the most important one that comes to my mind has to do with the idea that these social networks as Facebook and Twitter make us addicted. It can not be confirmed if every goverment in the world has a "data-theft" policy, but it can not be denied that IT IS as easy as a "click" to get private information about political views, marital status, the place you come from and even bank accounts . In "1984" there is a constant theat that basically comes from the "Big Brother" who controls every single aspect of the citizens. In today's world this would be done through getting information from social media.
* Ignorance
Certainly, the idea of using social networks has pros and cons but if we take a look at the cons, one of them is directly related to addiction to it. Platforms as Facebook and Twitter are aimed to "connect people around the world" but it is not mentioned that it can bring about ignorance about the real world. If someone is constantly posting data (most of them private) on Facebook , this could create a dependence on "the digital world" which can be manipulated by companies and politicians to achieve negative purposes. Albeit we may think that we can control how much time we spend on facebook , that is not true and in fact this may be a way in which the most powerful entities can manipulate us with fake information or just to move us away from the real world. This is the clearest example of what happens in Oceanía in "1984", since people believe whatever Big Brother tells them to believe. In that sense, social media would make easier to fulfill the aim of a part of the the slogan of the party: "Ignorance is strength."
*Advertising
From my perspective this the most evil trait of social networks since propaganda for and against different issues is bombing us. Ads are made to persuade people and it is pivotal that all users of social media understand the extent to which this information can change our minds. The use of ads has a wide array of purposes as business and political ones. In both cases, advertising is essential to attract people and sometimes fake information or overexageration take part of it. Since we spend so much time on Facebook, these ads are not unnoticed. In 1984 the bombardment of ads that promote the ideas in favor of the Big Brother is evidently a way of persuading citizens who indeed were very vulnerable to believe everything due to their ignorance.
As I see it, social media is the closest way in which entities such as governments and politicians can get private information and manipulate population. As I mention at the beginning, I am convinced that Orwell was a visionary since he was able to anticipate what would happen in a near future. Although he based the idea of the Big Brother on the totalitarian systems (that was part of what he lived), he added certain traits that has to do more with the next coming decades.
As a final reflection, I think it is importat to consider why we do what we do, especially when it comes to social media. We are over exposing our lives on a platform that can even be manipulated by a "Big Brother".
“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does.” Michel Foucault,
Heath, Shirley Brice. "Rethinking the sense of the past: The essay as legacy of the epigram." Theory and practice in the teaching of writing: Rethinking the discipline (1993): 105-31.
http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/06/1984_tech.php
Camila I partially agree with you, I mean I totally agree with you when you say that big brother is still watching, because it is true we are in hands of the government and through the internet they have access to whatever they want from us. And I also concur with the idea that advertising is one of the most evil things in our world, because that is the way in which the “power” persuade people now, they “present” casually what is nice and what is not, so we paying attention to the propaganda think that we choose, or decide, but in the end , we are not. However I disagree with you when you say that 1984 predicted the future, because from my point of view the reality has been always the same, the system has always been in control of us, the fact is that people do not realize about it, and the system always finds new ways to control us, and nowadays certainly is technology.
ResponderEliminarWell, I believe that this “Big Brother is watching you” is obviously present through social media, as you mentioned, but in a completely different way than in 1984. We have to remember that in the novel, Big Brother was a power figure that watched people all the time, it was thought to be omnipresent, but the difference is that in 1984 people were afraid of Big Brother and also manipulated by it, in contrast, we do not feel that way about social media, on the contrary, we feel very comfortable using it every single day and giving our information to every website or app that asks us to do so. Of course I believe this is not good, at all, as we are exposed to its dangers. The worst part of this is that it is not because of ignorance that we are so exposed, it is because we choose not to care about it.
ResponderEliminarRegarding the advertising, I believe it relates to social media simply by the fact that they try to shove down our throats propaganda and false information in the hope that we will believe it or waste our money on what they are offering, but it is not as violent as in 1984.