I want to talk to you about communication today. Chances are, if you are under 40, do any sort of business work, or have kids you constantly want to keep in touch with, you have a cell phone or computer. Now I could talk for hours about the dangers these items present to our own privacy, but what I really want to bring up is another example on how our government can control the way we think.

Unless you are a Grammar Nazi, an English Professor, or have auto-correct on your IPhone, I’m sure if any one of you looked through your messages, you’d find some pretty incomplete sentences. The truth is, humans are lazy, and writing out words like are, you, and why are sometimes too time consuming for us, especially if we are in a hurry or if we are using a numpad-type system to type. While not an immediate threat to the existence of language, try to think a little deeper in the way you use your phone. I’m sure that whether or not you type like a badly written radio message, it’s pretty hard to communicate any sort of emotion into your texts.

A recent study presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints shows that most of their religious missionaries are having a hard time talking to people because of the time they spend on electronic devices. I personally found this a little troubling. Specifically when I learned that most of these missionaries are 19-20 year old men. Religious values aside, you would think that even the Mormons could go out and have fun once in a while. However, these men can’t even talk to each other unless on a phone. While this isn’t necessarily a direct government conspiracy, and more likely a technology accident, it’s pretty weird to think about.

Like I mentioned in my earlier article, Newspeak was created to keep the people from thinking about things any more than they needed to. Bringing up another point made in the book multiple times, Ingsoc want’s to eventually get rid of emotion altogether. “There will be no wives and no friend…There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science…There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life.” 1984, pg. 267

Admit it, there is no real way to transfer these emotions through text. There are ways of showing a fake emotion through description, but nothing more. Have you ever read something where you aren’t really sure of either the context or the mood of it? Those things you read from time to time where you can’t decide whether or not they are happy or sad, sarcastic or serious?

Like everything else, it’s just another thing to think about.