{"id":38552,"date":"2017-02-06T20:43:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T04:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?page_id=38552"},"modified":"2017-02-06T20:44:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T04:44:34","slug":"was-george-orwell-right-with-1984","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/was-george-orwell-right-with-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Was George Orwell Right with 1984?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I just re-read George Orwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1984, and was creeped out how accurate many of his predictions were:<\/p>\n

I wanted to use this opportunity to process some notes I had about 1984, as an opportunity to internalize what I learned, and a chance for me to reflect.<\/p>\n

1. Thought police<\/h2>\n

In 1984, there is the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthought police\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in which thinking against \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBig Brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is a crime.<\/p>\n

Which made me wonder, with all these services like Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms (always \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcspying\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on us with our personal data) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d does that cause us to lose liberty? Does it cause us to become more fearful, and not say what is really<\/em> on our mind, because we are afraid that we are being monitored?<\/p>\n

I know for myself, I am a lot more wary and cautious when writing emails in Gmail. Because I know that if a judge orders it, Google would give my personal emails.<\/p>\n

The ex-CEO of Google (Eric Schmidt) once said something along the lines of:<\/p>\n

\n If you are doing something you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be doing, you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be hiding it.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I agree. But at the same time, would you want to show all of your intimate words that you share with your lover for all the public to read?<\/p>\n

2. \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTwo minutes of hate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/h2>\n

In 1984, the citizens were allowed to have a daily \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc2 minutes of hate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d when they would just release and vent all of their anger and negativity towards their enemies.<\/p>\n

In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, we kind of have that \u00e2\u20ac\u201d with social media. We use social media as a soap-box to vent our negative feelings and emotions.<\/p>\n

Yet, in 1984, the purpose of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc2 minutes of hate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was to keep the citizens more enslaved. Because they vented their anger at the enemies of big brother \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not big brother himself.<\/p>\n

The same is with social media. We use social media as a platform to vent our anger. Yet, how infrequently do we vent our anger at the social media platforms themselves\u00e2\u20ac\u201d who are actually the controllers of our information?<\/p>\n

3. Turning off the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctelescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/h2>\n

In 1984, every citizen has a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctelescreen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in their home (imagine a TV glued to your wall, that you can never turn off, and which is always spying on you).<\/p>\n

Later on in 1984, one of the members of the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcparty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is allowed to turn off the tele screen in their own home. The protagonist of the book is shocked.<\/p>\n

In a sense, the telescreen is like our modern smartphone. Our smartphone is always on, and always tracking our information, location, behavior, and other habits (if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using Google, Android, or Google-related products). Google Maps knows where I park my car and what I do on a daily basis. Google Calendar knows my schedule. Gmail knows my correspondences.<\/p>\n

In 1984, citizens are afraid to have freedom of thought, or do whatever they want, or say whatever they want, because they are always being spied on by the telescreen.<\/p>\n

Yet we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fortunate enough in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, we can turn off<\/em> our smartphones and devices. We can refuse<\/em> to use Google products, Facebook, or other social media platforms. We aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forced to give away our privacy, we give it away willing fully, in order to have an easier quality of life.<\/p>\n

As for me, I know I am a slave to Google products. And even though I know Google\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motto is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be evil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it just takes one evil CEO to ruin humanity.<\/p>\n

Am I willing to let go ease of my day-to-day living with technology, in exchange for my personal data and (some) of my liberty?<\/p>\n

4. Newspeak<\/h2>\n

In 1984, the government is trying to force everyone to speak \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnewspeak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which is essentially a dumbed down version of English.<\/p>\n

So instead of saying \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, citizens are taught how to say
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcungood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. If they want to say something is very<\/em> good, they say it is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcplusgood.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 If they want to say it is extremely<\/em> good, they say it is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdoubleplusgood.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

The purpose is to eliminate creativity of thought, and prevent the citizens from uprising against big brother.<\/p>\n

In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, I see a lack of creativity in terms of topics that people talk about. It is always about celebrities, the new iPhone, gossip, sports news, and other shallow topics.<\/p>\n

The government isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dumbing us down on purpose, but our media is. In this sense, our society is more like that in a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBrave New World\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (where citizens are dumbed down with soma and mindless entertainment). But that is a different essay.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

1984 has helped challenge my personal views on my personal use with technology. I am now a lot more aware and weary of my Google use, my Facebook use, and my social media use. I think I am going to start slowly weening myself away from these \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 services. Because I know that no such thing as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfree\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 exists. There is always a catch somewhere.<\/p>\n

Like they say in Silicon Valley:<\/p>\n

\n If the product you are using is free, then you are the product.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be anybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s product.<\/p>\n

Eric<\/p>\n

Hanoi, 11:48am, Feb 7, 2017 @ Cong Caphe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just re-read George Orwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1984, and was creeped out how accurate many of his predictions were: I wanted to use this opportunity to process some notes I had about 1984, as an opportunity \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38553,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38552","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}