George Orwell Big Brother Analysis

The World Wide Web was created far enough back for most people not to care about the specific date. It is a great asset for school, work, and general entertainment. But, with all the good things it brings, there are some negatives as well. The internet, once a new place of discovery, is now a place of caution with danger lurking around every corner. Lori Andrews writes about the privacy issues of the web in her essay, “George Orwell…Meet Mark Zuckerburg.” Already, in her title she emphasizes Orwell’s rational fear of “Big Brother” is happening now on Zuckerburg’s social media site, Facebook. It is not just Facebook that has fallen to data aggregators invading the privacy of anyone online. Andrews describes data aggregators as people or companies
Data aggregators are collecting personal information from websites. It is not only a name and a basic location, but what a person searches on the internet. Any action online has been tracked by these vultures, always scavenging for scraps of meat to fill their daily quotas. These bits and pieces of information become a second-self; “In essence, a second-self – a virtual interpretation of you – is being created from detritus of your life that exists on the web” (Andrews 710). As if this portrayal of the true self was not enough, social media makes a more psychological argument of the true self. Orenstein explains how the self is “becoming a brand”, something that is being advertised to others hoping for some people to buy into this persona (447). The problem is that this persona is also false. The self should be developed from within not developed by the likes and retweets received when interacting with social media (Orenstein 447). Orenstein even admits she has noticed at times when she has fallen to the need of updating a status, “As I loll in the front yard with Daisy [Orenstein’s daughter] or stand in line at the supermarket or read in bed, part of my consciousness splits off, viewing the scene from the outside and imagining how to distill it into a status update or a tweet” (448). This need to inform everybody online of what is happening at that moment by tweeting and posting pictures that are sure to be judged
Andrews describes weblining as, “the practice of denying certain opportunities to people due to observations about their digital selves” (711). Weblining can set a person back, “Not only does weblining affect what opportunities offered to you (in the form of advertisement, discounts, and credit lines), it also affects the type of information you see” (Andrews 712). Andrews used the example of Yahoo! News to reiterate the current issue of lack of privacy. Yahoo! News uses information from data aggregators to sort out what kind of news to show a person (712). That person may have looked at celebrity gossip and now that is the “news” that person would get on Yahoo! News. That person would be missing the important current events going on in the world. Some companies also buy web history from data aggregators and use that to decide if an applicant deserves the job or not. Like before, Orenstein takes a more psychological take on the effects. Unfortunately, online activities are affecting the psychological state of young adults. Orenstein’s research proves, “The impact, back in the offline world, appears to be an uptick in narcissistic tendencies,” (447). She even goes on to say the young adults are in short supply of empathy and have trouble maintaining romantic relationships and being honest (Orenstein 447-448). This is a huge blow to the lifestyles young adults play. Young