Big Brother Is Watching
By Scott Harrup | May 12, 2009
I read George Orwell’s 1984 in high school. Lindsay read it this semester. We agree it’s one depressing story.
Whether or not you’re familiar with the novel and the misadventures of protagonist Winston Smith, you’ve probably heard the expression “Big Brother” used to describe an intrusive, totalitarian government. The book’s repeated refrain, “Big Brother is watching you,” concerns that fictional government’s constant surveillance of its citizens.
The existence of such surveillance is a tenet of faith for many a conspiracy theorist, and the subject gets plenty of play on television and in film. In our post-9/11 world, fiction and fact are probably overlapping more often.
I had my own “Big Brother” experience today, and it has me thinking. In my case, I suspect the surveillance had nothing to do with Pennsylvania Avenue and everything to do with Madison Avenue. I was reading USA Today online, and an advertising box caught my attention. It featured rock-bottom deals on two pairs of binoculars and a microscope.
They were the same binoculars and microscope I’d Googled several times over the previous week.
Most Internet users take for granted their online activity is open to merchandisers’ scrutiny. But it still felt funny to be reading a national publication and discover some grubby little piece of software had reviewed my “personal” surfing and was generating price quotes I’d never solicited.
And yet, that pop-up window reminds me that none of us knows when someone else is evaluating our words or actions. On the other hand, I’m reminded that God is constantly checking out what I say and do and even think.
For the record, however, He’s the only “Big Brother” I’m comfortable with. For the rest of you cookie-generating virtual vendors — don’t call me, I’ll call you. At least give me the illusion of privacy.
Topics: Bizarre |
