Nowadays, almost everyone who lives in one of the first-world countries has a cell phone or any other mobile device that lets them get internet access anytime. Furthermore, in today’s age of technological progress, every device with internet access is equipped with a camera, microphone, or any other recording tool. This lets users depict everything they and share their content online on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many other platforms. The idea what anything you do or say can eventually end up online makes people being more cautious of their actions in public and control any information about them available online. Many compare this phenomenon to Orwell’s “Big Brother,” a character from his dystopian novel 1984. In the book, this character was “always watching” Oceania’s people, detecting anyone who threatened the ruling party Ingsoc. Today many would argue that we have become our own “Big Brother” as we censor anything we share online, which may show us negatively. However, this is not the case since we are almost always given a choice on what we share and not the other way around.
Indeed, anything we do or say may instantly end up online and go viral within a second. There are numerous examples of people having their entire lives ruined due to bad jokes or inappropriate public actions. For example, an unfortunate individual may collapse on the street after consuming way too much alcohol and instantly become recorded by a stranger who then uploads this video online. The footage might reach the poor person’s employer, who then decides to fire him for ruining the company’s image. The person might also lose his family and friends who would refuse to know him after seeing him on the internet. However, this does not fit in the concept of “Big Brother” as it does not take this man’s liberty to find himself collapsed on the street again. Afterward, he may try avoiding any content which discredits him being uploaded on the internet, but it does not mean he has to do so as he is always given a choice. In addition, this person can always legally remove this content since it was uploaded without his permission.
Unlike in 1984, people are free to build their online personas themselves. They are often free to choose what content regarding themselves they can post on social media. Orwell’s character only gave orders on how people were supposed to behave in their public and private lives. In the novel, every apartment, including Winston’s flat, had a telescopic device through which “Big Brother” spectated their actions. He detected and then punished anyone whose behavior broke the set of rules imposed by the ruling party. In modern-day life, there is no given set of rules to what can be uploaded online unless it breaks local laws. Everyone’s ethics code is different, and, thus, everyone is free to choose what they want to share about themselves with other people on the internet.
In conclusion, even though we tend to avoid any compromising material regarding us being uploaded online, this does not mean that we have become our own “Big Brother.” People are almost always given an opportunity to decide on how they want to be seen on the internet and, thus, they are almost always in control of the situation, unlike in 1984. Ingsoc provided a rigorous set of rules that people had to follow, but today, any individual is provided with the liberty to determine these rules themselves. We are given a choice, whereas “Big Brother” gave no choices.