Victoria Galluzzo
Ms. Williams-Korbel
Period 4
1 December 2014
Modern 1984 Do you ever have that prickly sensation on the back of your neck as if some was watching you from afar? In the novel “1984,” George Orwell depicts a world in which the government constantly surveillances it's own citizens. The government has the power to do spy on it's citizens with revolutionary technology. For decades critics have said that Orwell's book was nothing more than science fiction, they thought the government could not violate our rights with such technology, and even if they did have the technology they would not pock around their citizen's lives. But were they correct or was George Orwell right? Several writers, such as Jason Caminiti, author of the critical essay, "It's Like 1984 All Over Again," believe that the novel holds truer to modern times than people relies. Although we may not have Ingsoc, telescreens, Newspeak, or even helicopters darting past our windows, the government still has it's own way of controlling and monitoring American citizens through modern technology. Everything in today's society, from the Internet to the Social Security System, and even ID cards for schools and college campuses acts as a monitoring tool- which reflects George Orwell's nondescript science fiction novel. The technology described in "1984," was so outrages to comprehend in the forties that readers could not imagine the government controlling such innovated machinery, but decades later we have technology that resembles that of "1984." The idea that Winston was able to alter the past and the present with such ease was ludicrous, but today that seems like common knowledge. By using even our simplest technology today, one can easily vaporize information stored on a memory disk if this were necessary. Even printed media, such as newspapers and magazines could be found and destroyed by the government's technology now-a-days. Changing facts was not the only far off prediction come true, the idea of spying on people through technology could be going on now. The government in "1984" was able to "[snoop] into people's windows" through the use of telescreens, helicopters and spies (Orwell 4). These technological advancement, allowed "Big Brother" to peer into the homes of every citizens since they are mandatory. Our electronic paraphernalia, especially our cameras, phones, and microphones, are making it easy for people to spy on each other, just as the telescreens followed the "1984" citizens. The drones which the government has access to can peer into people's lives, just as the helicopters in the novel dogged people around. Cell phones can mimic the "mike[s] hidden" through the citizen's lives ( Orwell 125). The signal that a cell phone sends can easily be picked up by the government, therefore, it can easily be a mike into people private conversation. The technology in "1984" was extremely advanced for it's time that no one would have thought it would ever be possible, or that the government would use it to spy on their citizen's. Today, that does not sound so outrages, many of our technological advancements seem parallel to those in George Orwell's novel. Our government is constantly taking steps towards Orwellian type society. Our own Social Security numbers and cards could also be part of a "1984" style world. They keep track on citizens by cataloging people for organization and clerical purposes. Obligating people to be translated into numbers is keeping citizens easily followed. Wherever people go, their social security number follows- college, applying for a credit card or any government funded service- their social security is always there. It is so easily controlled, that the government can grab hold of it without the citizen's consent (Caminiti, p2.). Subjects can lose their identities, they would become nothing more then the "proles" of "1984." Citizens may not relies it yet but Social Security Numbers are a way for the government to
