Use Of Technology In Nineteen Eighty-Four By George Orwell

The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell has been described by many as a masterpiece that remarkably predicted the twenty-first century’s technological advances. The legacy left by Orwell had such a significant impact on the world that terms such as “Orwellian” were coined, television shows such as Big Brother were created, and more importantly, great minds of the late twentieth century such as Marshall McLuhan were influenced. In this political satire, the advanced technology found within Oceania allow its leaders to suppress its citizens with ubiquitous voice-activated devices known as “speakwrites”, monitoring devices, and pneumatic tubes known as “memory holes”. Many of McLuhan’s theories about technology and media parallel the devices …show more content…
Technology in Nineteen Eighty-Four is used to constantly alter language and history through the use of “speakwrites”. Through this modification, language is no longer a physical entity, but instead a fluid one capable of changing to fit the purposes of society. The novel’s protagonist, Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party in Oceania who works as a clerk in the records department of “The Ministry of Truth”. This department’s function is to construct lies that fit the government’s views by rewriting history using a dictation device known as a “speakwrite”. Winston would speak into this device, and the device would comprehend and record what he is saying. The problem with the “speakwrite” is that is operates under only one language; Newspeak. The aim of Newspeak is to remove rebellious or meaningful words and their meanings from society, so that Oceania’s citizens no longer possess independent thoughts. When certain words are removed, these individuals are no longer able to find the words necessary to describe their feelings. Instead, these individuals are only be capable of producing thoughts that fit the motives of the government. This repression of critical thinking and …show more content…
These technological devices are operated by a group known as the “Thought Police” who can read the thoughts of citizens by analyzing factors such as facial expression, body language, and even heartbeat. This results in a world within the novel where the government is always connected to its citizens. This ability to instantly connect to each other was contemplated by Orwell well before the invention of the internet, and may have contributed to McLuhan’s theory of a global village. McLuhan’s theory of a global village also predicted the internet as a world interconnected by an electronic nervous system. McLuhan emphasized that the global village would create an environment in which there is an extreme concern for other people’s business. This is exactly the case in Nineteen Eighty-Four, taken to the extreme, where the business of the public is always the business of somebody else. Although McLuhan never comments on the extent to which this globalization could reach, as Nineteen Eighty-Four presents one of the most extreme cases, it is possible that McLuhan created his idea of a global village based on the society that existed in the novel. Both Orwell and McLuhan envisioned a world connected by technology that makes space and time seem obscure, as individuals nowhere remotely close to each other could