In 1984, Big Brother is the main so-called “government” in Oceania. Winston describes a life of desolate, dull existence where no one has any rights to freedom of speech, or even thoughts. There are televisions referred to as “telescreens” that can never be turned off. People are always being watched. In a way big brother already does exist in today’s world. There are always news stories about companies and the government possibly caught for listening in to civilian’s private conversations. In England, an artist by the name of Banksy, spray-painted a painting mocking CCTV, a monitoring system in England meant for security. Banksy went completely unnoticed while spray-painting his artwork on the side of a building under surveillance. He definitely proves that CCTV may not exactly be used for security like it’s claimed to be. I tend to link the advancement of technology with our loss of privacy. The more gadgets we use, the more of an open opportunity we are leaving for people to have a front row view into our private lives. It’s rumored that our telephone calls can be screened and listened to. And I’m sure that our use of the Internet and business on our computers can be monitored as well. Is this bad? Well, it can be but there are reasons as to why they might feel the need to “monitor” the people of America. If we let it get to a ridiculous amount of monitoring, will we end up living in an Oceania of our own? Thursday, October 6, 2011
One Nation Under CCTV
In 1984, Big Brother is the main so-called “government” in Oceania. Winston describes a life of desolate, dull existence where no one has any rights to freedom of speech, or even thoughts. There are televisions referred to as “telescreens” that can never be turned off. People are always being watched. In a way big brother already does exist in today’s world. There are always news stories about companies and the government possibly caught for listening in to civilian’s private conversations. In England, an artist by the name of Banksy, spray-painted a painting mocking CCTV, a monitoring system in England meant for security. Banksy went completely unnoticed while spray-painting his artwork on the side of a building under surveillance. He definitely proves that CCTV may not exactly be used for security like it’s claimed to be. I tend to link the advancement of technology with our loss of privacy. The more gadgets we use, the more of an open opportunity we are leaving for people to have a front row view into our private lives. It’s rumored that our telephone calls can be screened and listened to. And I’m sure that our use of the Internet and business on our computers can be monitored as well. Is this bad? Well, it can be but there are reasons as to why they might feel the need to “monitor” the people of America. If we let it get to a ridiculous amount of monitoring, will we end up living in an Oceania of our own? 
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We do have the ability of being almost constantly watched because of our ever expanding technology. This is truth. But I'm not sure as "Americans" we will ever forfeit all of our "natural" freedoms and cross the bridge into a society like Oceania. I believe as a society we shall realize when the governments proding has gone to far and we won't hesitate to stop the invasion of our most private thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI like the story about the english guy. That reminds me, Just yesterday, i was reading about some guy that had his mac computer stolen but had an app on it that allowed him to track it, as well as detect when its on and take snapshots. So he was about to take pictures of the guy, get access to what he was doing, and track was, just because he had something installed on his computer that the thief didn't know. It freaked me out a little cause i thought, woah, what if some company installed that app and then was able to do that to us. That would be a huge privacy invasion, plus its really freaky.
ReplyDeleteI like the title you picked for this post. I really thought that story about the guy spray painting was kinda funny, that no one noticed it. anyways, I agree with what you said ". I tend to link the advancement of technology with our loss of privacy." I would say that the deal plan would be to find a happy medium here and then try and tweak it to perfection. Lastly, I think that eventually we will be living in Oceania and it will surely suck.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, great post.
i like the picture and the title of your work ! katie this post is similar to my ideas also. what we do on the internet is being watched im for sure. and telephone calls as well... why? i really dont think its neccessary.
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