Is Big Brother watching over us?

Despite being written over 70 years ago, George Orwell's dystopian novel of 1984 may have predicted the omniscient world of the present...

In a world where 2+2=5, Orwell's protagonist Winston Smith is stripped of all rights to privacy and historical knowledge. Constantly being observed, Winston must submit to Big Brother, an all-powerful dictator who imposes both devotion and terror on the entire nation of Oceania.

“The black-moustachio'd face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes drew into Winston's own.”

Orwell is no stranger to propaganda, and the character of Squealer in Animal Farm stresses its effectiveness in an operating tyranny. Big Brother is the supreme leader of the party, and his superficial presence encourages the party to seek total control over the population. Orwell published Nineteen Eighty-Four three years after the end of WW2, and aspects of war are highly prominent throughout the novel. The portrayal of Big Brother is reminiscent of Alfred Leete's painting of Lord Kitchener, with the fitting caption, "YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU". Both pieces are optical illusions, where the image's eyes are designed to follow you from every angle. In the novel, it is used as a reminder that Big Brother is indeed watching your every move. During both WW1 and WW2 however, the trick had a major influence on sending young and vulnerable people off to war. The potency of propaganda is therefore indisputable, as it has the ability to mislead people to the political desires of others.

Big Brother in the contemporary world

As a teenager, social media lies at the heart of my generation. We are living in an age where almost everything we do online is traceable, and it all comes down to a little gadget that we carry around in our pockets every day. Throughout the novel, telescreens are used for surveillance purposes and to watch your every move. The information we share on social media today may be viewed in a similar light, hence the Leveson Inquiry of 2011, and more recently Netflix's The Social Dilemma. We are provided with targeted news and advertisements which give us more of what we like, and at times we can become consumed by what we are seeing. The seemingly all-knowing internet algorithms of today are the most relevant comparison to Big Brother's power, albeit we are not living under the same tyrannical structure.

The internet has made it harder for us, as a collective, to distinguish truth from lie. With a considerable degree of accuracy, you may Google when Nineteen Eighty-Four was first published, and be provided with an appropriate answer. However, the targeted news we receive constitutes towards the growing echo chambers within our society: The internet has allowed opinions to replace facts. The so-called Flat Earth theory and conspiracies regarding Covid-19 are modern examples of this, and such a concept is reticent to Orwell's Ministry of Truth. Although the truth is out there somewhere, we are forgiven to believe that aspects of doublethink run through our society, which are ignited by what we are reading in our biased online "feeds".

It is undeniable that we are predisposed by what we are seeing online. The very term "influencer" is now used widespread amongst social media platforms, and the extent of which will vary from person to person. I am not an ardent user of social media myself, however I have grown up with it and seen first-hand the impacts that it has on our lives. At times, we can almost become a product of what is deemed "desirable" online, whether it be looks, fashion or political viewpoints. It is unjust to draw a direct comparison between influencers and Big Brother, although both possess the potential to significantly alter our thought-processes. Ultimately, it comes down to our own consumption of social media as individuals, and how we choose to react to the things that we see.

If Big Brother IS watching, is it a bad thing?

So far, this post has put the "existence" of Big Brother in a negative light. Is it all that bad?

The presence of Big Brother in modern society actually plays a major role in keeping us safe. CCTV cameras are generally considered a good thing, and the idea of areas being under consistent observation is effective against crime. If we were so opposed to the thought of Big Brother, I wouldn't imagine us voluntarily purchasing doorbells with a camera fixed to the front. When used ethically, Big Brother is an asset to any society, and it is not necessarily a bad thing if we are being watched by him.

The difficulty with the question at hand is that it depends on Big Brother's motive. His purpose throughout the novel is to entirely suppress public thought, manipulating us to the ideals of the party; and that he does with a considerable amount of success. In the present day, his motive would be more associated with showing us the information that we are perceived to want, instead of actively trying to change it.

Therefore, it is feasible to suggest that Big Brother does in fact exist, and we are being watched by him. To what extent however, I will leave that up to you to decide...