George Orwells 1984 and Today Essay -- Television 1984 Freedom Essays

George Orwells 1984 and Today TV rots the senses in the headIt kills the imagination deadIt clogs and clutters up the mindIt manufactures a child so dull and blind.He can no longer understand a fantasy,A fairylandHis brain sticks as soft as cheeseHis powers of thinking rust and stop An excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,By Roald Dahl, 1964 When George Orwells epic novel 1984 was published in 1949 it opened the publics imagination to a future terra firma where privacy and freedom had no meaning. The year 1984 has come and gone and we generally believe ourselves to still live in The Land of the Free however, as we right off move into the 21st Century changes brought about by recent advances in technology have changed the way we live forever. Although these new developments have seamed to make everyday life more enjoyable, we must be cautious of the dangers that lie behind them for it is very possible that we are in fact living in a world more similar to that of 1984 than we would like to imagine.In 1949 when Orwells novel was published, television was a relatively new invention. Fewer than 10% of the unite States households had a television set in them and at this time programming was limited to mainly news-oriented shows. Many people believed that television would never surpass receiving set as the chief means of mass communication they could not have been more incorrect.Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the years of the three channel black and white programming of the early years that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming up to(p) of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwells 1984, we are beginning to realize th at the effects of television viewing whitethorn be the same as those of the telescreens. The telescreens in 1984 served two purposes, surveillance and mind control. Unlike the televisions of our present day, the telescreens in 1984 also served as a device ever monitoring the citizens actions by means of an integrated camera and microphone in addition to broadcasting continuous p... ...her say to us No, Im sorry I cant do that right now, Im watching my show. Americans have ceased to live their knowledge lives and have practically become slaves to their televisions and the corporations that stand behind them. Unlike the citizens of Oceania, we are able to make our own decisions. We can turn off our televisions we can live our own lives and make our own experiences. We can learn about and do practically anything we want. Most of us do not take advantage of this freedom. In fifty years when my generation has become grandparents, what stories will we have to tell our grandkids? Will t hey rightfully want to hear about that episode of Friends that we loved so much? Will we really have any knowledge or experiences worthwhile to tell them? Perhaps it wont even matter. Perhaps our grandkids will be too kindle in what they are watching on television to even want to listen to us. Yes we live in the Land of the Free, but until we really start taking advantage our freedom to the fullest and pull ourselves away from the television we are no better off than the citizens of Oceania and the telescreens that surround them as they toil on in their non-eventful lives.