My personal Big Brother

Language & Thinking

Polina Antipova

Speaking about my personal “Big Brother”, I would like to start with an idea that I do not have a
particular one thing, concept or person, which I consider following me or the whole planet.
Nevertheless, I have some thoughts about this phenomenon, described in “1984”.

First what comes to my mind with considering the main character of Orwell’s “1984” is that each
country in the world has its own perception of the global history and treats current events
differently, as the government broadcasts it. For instance, in USA people do not know much about
the true situation in China, because they get second-hand information, which can be fully distorted
by reporters, journalists or even some influencers who are important for the country. That is one
face of the modern “Big Brother”, which is very hard to deal with, because the news is never the
same on TVs throughout the world, and it is unchangeable. Take COVID-19 situation, for example.
Statistics of people who are ill in Russia at this moment is different in China, in USA and in Russia.
This was always a big question for me, why the world can not inform everyone about all events with
clear facts, without giving useless points of view for each event in the history?

Another problem witch I feel is also a global one, but in Russia for citizens it is the most
noticeable issue. I imply on the big problem of presenting false results of different elections and
miscounted numbers of any statistics, should it be an average salary of those who work or the
accurate number of people who are below the poverty line in cities and regions. Of course, I cannot
tell for sure that all the data which is collected by government and showed to the public is always an
absolute lie, but it is sometimes obvious and even ridiculous how all these votes differ from what we
actually see is happening now and what are the opinions of our circle of acquaintances and general
opinion.

It can be seen that rulers are the most influential in modern world, and can easily be called real
«Big Brothers» of the twenty first century. Their daily influence is expressed in many ways, and I
want to mention some. First and the most noticeable feature is news, translated to every family’s
TV. And it is not just about the differentiation of given information in hundreds of countries, but it
is also about a filter which is everywhere. By filter I mean censorship, and it is an obligatory
condition for being in broadcasts every week for TV channels. As for other sources of being freshly
informed, the Internet has also a sort of censorship. It is invisible and nobody talks about it, but in
case of saying something wrong in Internet, it can cause danger to one’s family and to a particular
person, who is brave enough to write and post any frank utterances.

Second thing which bothers me and gives me hope at the same time is the availability of those
who rule to watch after anyone they want and whenever they want it. So called FSS (Federal
Security Service) has an opportunity and full credentials for listening to the telephone conversations,
read and have access to people’s pages in social media and do other unbelievable intimate stuff. This
idea really makes me crazy, because I suppose that it is not quite appropriate to intrude so hard into
someone’s personal life. However, this novelty has made possible catching criminals by following
them and their locations by satellite. This ability makes me feel just a bit safer, because I can
understand that it helps to find and treat people who do bad and illegal actions. I also understand that
those workers who do this job do not have so much time to watch after everybody, and they only
take in their account residents who are or were under suspicion.

This whole idea of watching after someone became crazy with latest produced technologies. We
all have watched movies where IT specialists can turn on a laptop or phone camera on the device of
any person in any part of the world. I am sometimes paranoic about cameras, wherever they are: I
cover them up while taking shower and listening to music, during watching a movie or changing my
clothes. If the wiretapping seems OK for me in some cases, I find camera surveillance the invasion
of privacy. From the moral point of view, it is even roughly to follow after criminals through this
way.

I sometimes also have a feeling that our world has actually become a world of «1984», where Big
Brothers are real, exist everywhere and constraint us daily. No one can actually give many
arguments for that, but the untrustful spirit of people can be felt, especially among the youngsters
alongside our planet.

My most pessimistic idea, which is not realized into life yet, is widespread adoption of chips,
which is being more and more discussed in contemporary world. The main point for such an
introduction is to have the fullest data about all the citizens, would it be the amount of illegal actions
or having diagnoses and other personal info. I also have heard about having all data about our
passports in Internet, because there were rumors and even real plans for replacement of paper
passports with electronic ones, and these electronic ID cards would contain any kind of possibly
known records about a person. Personally, for me these electronic cards are also controversial,
because I suppose such cards useful most of the time, but it will become inhumanly, and the right
for freedom of private life will collapse, and no ruler can be able to promise to fully return it in some
time.

Considering my personal Big Brothers, first one which bothers me every day is a Brother in my
head, which creates an impression that it is my second personality having a full control after all
things I do. For example, it can be expressed in choosing what to read, to watch and to do on a
regular basis. That Brother is always for self-development, productivity, sports, quality food and
healthy lifestyle. Sometimes I feel that being too active and too right for me and others sucks the
strength and energy out of me, but I cannot do anything to succeed. The Brother does not allow me
to give up and have enough rest. I clearly understand that this demanding cohabitant of my mind
destroys me, but I have not found a way how to find the approach to him yet. Second personal
Brother which affects my life not too positively is one which forms my behavior in public, thoughts
about to tell or not to tell certain things to other people, clothes I wear, photos I post on social
medias and other interactions with society. This one is about my mind also, but it exists in heads of
all people nowadays. This Brother controls everything we do and what image we create for people
we talk to or simply for ones who we see on the streets. I feel I depend on it a lot.

Taking into consideration all mentioned above, I would like to claim that I see my personal Big
Brother in a way of treating us by rulers and with invention of new watching technologies which
were impossible to imagine some time ago, but are so used now, and nobody minds. The same
tendency will be also seen as a repetitive mechanism in future: new ways and possibilities will seem
cruel and «too much», but later soon it will be our daily normal life.
 The inner Brother of every human is also strong and seem to many people as destructive one. I
feel its presence by certain attitudes and stereotypes which were created some time ago in my and
other people’s heads.