Big Brother Is Still Watching

-- By ChevaunSamuels - 11 Oct 2019

Of all the noises that I will never forget growing up, the one that always sticks out to me the most and is nearest to my heart is not from my friends, songs nor a television show. Instead, it’s the sound of a modem connecting with another modem and yelling to my cousins that they need to get off the phone. It was the joyous noise of being part of the beginning of the internet and the power to immerse myself in a whole new world. Growing up this was our only computer in the house, and we had to make do with what we had. We found ways to get our homework done and late in the nights when everyone was sleeping and had no need for the telephones, we would play Disney Channel games and watch random YouTube? videos.

Today’s generation will never know the patience it took to connect to the internet. As society continues to modernize, these memories slowly fade away, losing a powerful part of our history. Technology is a powerful force that has continued to develop and mold itself around the modernization of our society. Kids today now have the power to browse the internet, send messages and make calls from watches on their hands and iPhones that cost the equivalent of one month’s rent for some people. Technology has thus demonstrated a consistent trend toward innovations as a result of improving upon current ones. Despite this trend, with innovations we see our freedom dwindle less and less as individuals find ways to use our data for personal gains unbeknownst to some, but not all. Some individuals are aware that they are being watched but the benefits of having that technology allow them to turn their head as Big Brother Watches.

In his book 1984, George Orwell said “Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution to establish a dictatorship…The object of power is power.” The modernization of the internet and technology is the revolution that Orwell mentions, and the NSA can be viewed as the dictators of our society. Since its creation in 1952, When President Harry S. Truman issued a secret executive order establishing the NSA as the hub of the government’s foreign intelligence activities, the agency has been covertly spying on Americans, listening in on their phone calls, reading their mail, and monitoring their communications.

The passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the creation of the FISA Court brought some hope. However, it ultimately did not curtail the NSA’s illegal activities. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush secretly authorized the NSA to conduct warrantless surveillance on American's phone calls and emails. Things did not get any better under President Barack Obama. Violations worsened, with the NSA being authorized to collect internet and telephone data from millions of Americans. It was only after Edward Snowden’s 2013 outburst that the American people fully understood the extent to which they were being betrayed once again.

Despite all this information that was released, people still use all the technology in the world and carry on like everything is okay. Corporate trackers monitor such things as purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts, and other activities in the cyber world. Certain credit cards are monitored when you purchase things at stores and are mined for data and essentially sold to the highest bidder. Uber’s ride service app knows where you are even when you are not actively using the app. The question is, how can we go on living in a society without these things in our life. If we turn each corner Big Brother is still watching.

1984 has never been so prevalent as it is today. When we eat, drink, sleep or swipe our information is being monitored, but that doesn’t seem to scare people at all. I am at fault for this as well because I still use all of these apps and I still post on social media. However, our generation has gotten so hung up on these things that we feel are the basis of our society. Before the noise of the modem connecting to the internet, we didn’t have access to the world wide web. Before that we didn’t have access to computers, at least I didn’t. Back then we made do with what we had, and we engaged with people because we were living in the moment. As time passed, we saw less and less of that. People today have no sense of engagement and cannot take their eyes off their screens. What a life that will be if people just looked up more often.

I am not sure if there is a true solution to this problem of the modernization of technology. However, there is a solution to Big Brother’s eyes on us and the corporate trackers using our information. We have become so accustomed to having the world in our hands and the thought of giving it up is a hard choice to make. However, it is a choice that we have to make to preserve who we are and preserve our society.

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