Orwell and Huxley's Theories in the Media I Consume


Huxley's fears that our society will become obsessed with trivialities which will distract us from more important things in life is a very valid fear because that is exactly what is happening today. In my case, and surely in the case of many others as well, hearing or reading about serious or depressing subjects is not something I voluntarily do. And in order to avoid such subjects that might pop up on my social media home pages, such as on Instagram, or Facebook, I tend to skip them as quickly as possible and distract myself with more fun content such as dog or workout videos. With access to so much content about any imaginable subject at the touch of a button, it is incredibly easy to get distracted. I think Huxley's fears are only magnified by the way algorithms work on social media sites. These algorithms make use of an individual's preferences in order to supply similar content to them, but by doing so, the person might end up in their own little bubble with very little information about more consequential things in life.

Orwell feared that censorship of the information the public is given might turn us into a captive culture. The scariest part about the real life application of his fear is that this censorship is not like the pixilation of woman's naked breasts, it is a type of censorship that is unannounced and invisible to us because we will never really know if censorship even took place. I think one of the biggest forms of this type of censorship that I am aware of is the lack of information on news media sources about urgent global issues such as the concentration camp situation of the Uighur Muslims in China, or the issue with the separated and lost families in ICE Detention Centers in America. I think this kind of censorship not only keeps you hidden from real problems going on around the world, but it also makes you think the issue is not as big of a problem as is rumored because it is not being reported upon in "credible" news media sources.

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