Eric Arthur Blair
Born June 25th, 1903
Died January 21st, 1950
A muffled sound can be heard coming from six feet below the earth. It is the sound of fists beating, and legs kicking on the inside lid of a coffin. If you listen closely you can hear the man known to the world as George Orwell screaming out from his final resting place, "1984 was a cautionary tale, not an instructional manual you fools!"
It has often been said that truth is stranger than fiction. In many cases that tired old cliche comes very close to being true. In some cases, it is shockingly real. In the article Is your Boss Spying on You Off the Clock we start to see startling similarities to the George Orwell's novel from nineteen forty-nine named simply 1984, a land where Big Brother is watching you all of the time, newspeak makes it impossible to know the truth and waging constant war against foreign enemies is considered the norm, and not the aberration.
In the above mentioned article we hear of a company that spies for profit on unknowing corporate employees. We then read further on in the article that our own government is using social media to spy on everyone from Al Qeada terrorists to, as G.W. Schulz stated, elderly anti-war protesters linked to Quaker activism. In some cases, governmental agencies have gone as far as friending people just to spy on them.
Social Media like facebook has been a wonderful way to keep in contact with friends, neighbors; however, we are now starting to see what evil comes with it. I do firmly believe that if the unemployment rate were lower a company like Social Intelligence could not and would not exist. I know that if I found my HR department was spying on me in that manner, I would be seeking new employment. Sadly though, it is an employer's market right now, and as employees, we no longer have the right to privacy. It is one thing to not hire some one
for an accounting job due to a felony conviction for embezzlement, it is quite another to not hire someone for having a photo up on facebook where they are pictured drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels 20 some years ago while in the Army.Our employers and our government are spying on us, we have been at war now for nine years with no end in sight. 1984 is no longer fiction, it is becoming reality. The worst part of this, we enabled this world ourselves. Our need to be connected to a larger community has doomed us to a lifetime of surveillance. Big Brother is watching...facebook.
Mark:
ReplyDeleteYou're scaring me this week. First, you have me thinking George Orwell might be awaking and coming back. And secondly, the picture of you with the Jack Daniels looks way too much like me from 30 years ago. If Orwell came back, I can't imagine what he'd think and say about the state of surveillance today, but it likely would include your assessment that we're all doomed to it now with the internet. And you're right, we did it to ourselves voluntarily in the name of fun and efficiency in socializing over a public network.
I'm looking at an article in the paper right now about a British guy (maybe near Orwell's grave!) who missed a plane out of Robin Hood airport due to heavy snow (they closed the airport) and fired off a Tweet to a dozen followers stating: "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get it together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" This post was discovered by an airport duty manager browsing the internet 5 days later. He forwarded the message on to his manager who even though he deemed it "non-credible" it was passed on to the police. They arrested him, he was charged, convicted and his appeal turned down. $3,225 in court costs and a fine of $621.
Like you say, social media is a wonderful way to stay in touch with friends. Now here comes the evil with it...
And this isn't even this weeks blog post...this was just a bonus posting : )
ReplyDeleteAwesome pic!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know George Orwell was a pen name, so you can imagine I was a bit confused at the start.
I don't have my copy of New New Media on me, but the author makes a point in his Facebook chapter about how it shouldn't matter to an employer what a prospective employee did the week or night before the interview, but it does...and like you said, we're still sharing opinions and images within the "walled garden" of FB willy nilly.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, when I went on the academic job market my blog worked to my advantage because interviewers felt they knew me already, so maybe writing and composing "longer thoughts" is helpful?