Monday, May 6, 2013
The book 1984 explores the role of technology in a future society. In the most recent readings, technology is starting to play a more minor role in Winston's life. This starts with his discovery of the room in the attic of the antique shop. This room is one of the few places it seems in all of Oceania without a telescreen. Julie and Winston spend there time in the attic, away from technology, forming a close relationship, talking, and making love. Furthermore, we see technology cut out when Winston and Julie meet with O'Brien and O'Brien is able to turn of the telescreen completely. Without Big Brother constantly monitoring them, they are able to converse about the Brotherhood and their plot to defeat the system. In both cases, without the presence of technology, people are able to form a powerful connection. Orwell seems to be commenting on how technology separates people and can affect the social climate. This is true today. People are constantly on the phones, on the computer, watching T.V. It seems rare for people to be completely removed from technology at any point in their life. I think technology is having an extremely negative impact on the way people interact with one another and people are no longer concerned with how meaningful their true friendships are but how many Facebook friends they have.
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It's true, Seamus - Orwell's prophetic vision of the future is unsettling. Although we promote technology as a way to bring people together, it is actually a vehicle for isolation and a lack of community. Perhaps "progress" is not as beneficial as we think it is....
ReplyDeleteOrwell's dystopia in 1984 is similar to that of Huxley's in Brave New World in the sense that both authors paint the picture of a world where peoples' rights are compromised for the sake of progress. Seamus described Oceania as a place where technology has been abused to infringe on peoples' privacy. Big Brother and the telescreens serve to oppress by constantly informing the government of every violation of the rules. In Brave New World, science has advanced to a point where genetics, bioengineering, and child rearing can be carefully adjusted to create a person with extremely specific traits. People's bodies and minds are tampered with to create a specimen ideal for a particular social caste. The people have lost their free will to hypnopaedic conditioning that forces them to be happy in society. Dystopian societies that are based on ideas that are traditionally viewed as progressive are especially frightening because they force the reader to evaluate their role in their own society.
ReplyDeleteSuper Sad True Love Story also explores the effects of technology on society, but the relationship of that technology to the government is a bit different than the relationship presented in 1984. In the America of the future depicted in SSTLS, everyone seems to spend most of their time absorbed in their apparats (iPhone/tablet-like devices that people carry around with them). Print sources are no longer used, and it seems as though much of news reporting has been turned over to independent reporters who basically broadcast very vague, uninformed live news videos oftentimes mixed with sexually related material. All social interaction is governed by the internet--Facebook has expanded into this even more powerful platform called GlobalTeens--and individuals have very little privacy, as all of their credit scores, online purchase records, basic factual info, and personal preferences are available to others through this platform. While the government does not control these internet platforms, cyber security seems fairly loose, and takeover of the internet is part of the process when America breaks apart and is overtaken by rebel groups and a security business. However, without the internet, young people in this society are unable to function, and don't know what to do with themselves or how to interact with others--the lack of constant virtual connection, when the internet goes down, drives several young people to suicide.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you, Mrs. Graham, that technology is, in some ways, a vehicle for isolation. Additionally, I found it interesting in SSTLS when Lenny attempts to read a book to Eunice, but she is unable to really understand the story--she says she was only ever taught to skim text for information, and was never really taught how to read a literary work for overall meaning and content. I think this is definitely reflective of the way our society is trending--with the expansion of the internet, I think people are getting used to reading shorter blocks of texts, such as short opinion pieces, and are finding it more difficult to hold on to the concentration required to read a longer work or book. Even in my own life, I have found that my attention span and patience for reading longer pieces of writing has seemed to have decreased in recent years, simply from lack of practice, which is concerning to me.