
We share what we do, what makes us happy or sad, where we are, and who we are with. We are not only watching, but participating, too. Moreover, it made us all part of that craziness. Social media gave us a chance to observe everyone we know and don’t know.

Now, we didn’t need the TV to enjoy the mania of observing other people’s lives, cheering for them and judging their actions. Shortly after the craze with this show that no one took seriously, the world became addicted to the Internet. The symbol of omnipresent dictatorship and a government that watches us started losing its frightening power. People were associating it only with The Big Brother, a TV show that everyone was watching. During the 1980s, when 1984 was supposed to achieve its full glory, its essence was diluted. As it turned out, this book questions the values of all societies, including the democracy we used to idealize so much. However, the theme of the book was also falsely approached as a critique to totalitarianism only. The title was just a number, just a year. At the beginning, 1984 made people think, but it was still approached as fiction. They have a naïve approach towards information and accept it without processing it from a critical point of view. He envisioned a future where people believed what the media told them to believe. With this novel, he expressed his fear of totalitarianism and the direction it was taking the society to. That’s how we’re living Orwell’s 1984 today. When Edward Snowden exposed the US spying scandal in 2013, we became aware of another something else: when we’re not willingly sharing information, governments get it anyway.

By being connected through the Internet, we expose our privacy, bills, interests, and our entire lives. However, now, in 2017, we are living a reality that’s dangerously getting close to the one the author described. In the 80s, we were reminded of Orwell’s 1984 through a TV spectacle called The Big Brother. It made people think: is this really going to happen? It didn’t happen then, so the year in the book’s title was Orwell’s biggest mistake.

Since the book was published in the middle of the 20th century, the year 1984 appeared too close. When this book first came out, it frightened people. It’s valuable because most of it came true. It’s not intriguing because it presents one man’s visualization of the future. The chosen essay topic for 1984 by George Orwell: “How We’re Living in George Orwell’s 1984 Nowadays”Īlthough he is considered to be one of the best essayists of the 20th century, most people recognize George Orwell for 1984 – one of the most intriguing futuristic books ever written. Jepsen, the second place of the Askpetersen Essay Writing Contest.
