1984 or Brave New World?

Research shows that in the U.S., for every one pro-Israel TikTok video that is viewed, 50 pro-Palestinian videos are viewed. TikTok says that this is just a mirror of wider society; in other words, it is what people want or how people feel. But such ratios do not even come close to reflecting the results of any opinion poll on the matter. This has led some to conclude that TikTok’s algorithm is driving a surge in antisemitic content.

In another batch of research, it was found that Instagram’s algorithm delivers a toxic video mix to adults who follow children. According to the Wall Street Journal, if you follow young gymnasts, cheerleaders and other teen and preteen influencers on the platform, you are then served “jarring doses of salacious content... including risqué footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos.”

The Journal set up the test accounts,

... after observing that the thousands of followers of such young people’s accounts often include large numbers of adult men, and that many of the accounts who followed those children also had demonstrated interest in sex content related to both children and adults.

They also tested what the algorithm would recommend after its accounts followed some of those users as well, which produced very disturbing results:

In a stream of videos recommended by Instagram, an ad for the dating app Bumble appeared between a video of someone stroking the face of a life-size latex doll and a video of a young girl with a digitally obscured face lifting up her shirt to expose her midriff. In another, a Pizza Hut commercial followed a video of a man lying on a bed with his arm around what the caption said was a 10-year-old girl.

These are just two examples of the way algorithms of various platforms attempt to influence you on various issues or try to tempt you into horrific behavior.

In an earlier blog, I wrote that if there are two visions of a dystopian future that continue to present themselves to our modern imaginations, they would be those put forward by George Orwell in his 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel Brave New World.

Orwell’s vision was of a totalitarian state replete with mass surveillance and regimented repression. It was largely modeled on Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany.

In a not-so-thinly veiled critique of socialism, Huxley’s foil was technology – or our capitulation to it – leading to a caste system based on intelligence that had, itself, been manipulated by technology to various ends. While in a later foreword Huxley confessed to leaving out one of the great technological achievements of the day – nuclear energy – he was prescient in his sense of how reproductive technology and psychological manipulation could be employed.

Neither work held out much hope of a human utopia and lay in direct contrast to the view that humanity could – through technology or will – solve all economic and social problems. This was shattered through a first world war, which was quickly followed by a second. Whether a “boot in the face” (Orwell) or a ruling oligarchy (Huxley), the result was the same: suppression.

Neil Postman referred to both authors in the foreword to his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, where he wrote:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture…. In 1984… people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

Neither envisioned the internet, where almost limitless information is available, but also no wisdom; neither envisioned social media platforms, where we are manipulated into what to think about and how to think about it; neither envisioned algorithms that would become both Orwell’s suppressor as well as Huxley’s oligarchy. 

So we can end the debate about which will come true—Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four or Huxley’s Brave New World.

The answer is, “Yes.”

James Emery White

Sources

Mark Sellman, “TikTok Content ‘Linked to Hate Crimes’ Amid Surge in Anti-Israel Videos,” The Times UK, November 27, 2023, read online.

Jeff Horwitz and Katherine Blunt, “Instagram’s Algorithm Delivers Toxic Video Mix to Adults Who Follow Children,” The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2023, read online.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.