At the end of the twentieth century, society saw a massive boom in technological advancements. By the start of the twenty-first century, suddenly everyone was connected due to the creation of the World Wide Web. These massive changes brought about a major shift in the way technology is used. Though the advances in technology have brought about an easier way of life, our lives have now adapted to, and become dependent on, technology. Whether it’s smart phones, social media, or computers, it seems that we cannot go through the day without being plugged in to the virtual world.
Being connected all the time, be it on Facebook or just watching the news, has caused a new problem never before encountered: technology has begun taking over our daily lives, and, by extension, controlling us in an expected way. As Mary A. Matos writes, “Magazines, newspapers, radios, TVs… and a myriad of other types of media are bombarding us with information at all times… we are all manipulated by media.” The ugly side of technology and media has only recently come into public consciousness as we become aware of the ties that technology has to mental illness and obesity, for example.
Thus, the technological advances that changed the world are leading some to view the technological future with a dystopian lens: they envision a world where technology controls humans, instead of the other way around. The unnerving prospect of being ruled by machines seems to fit the definition of dystopia, which is defined by Merriam- Webster as “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.”
This negative view of the future has been echoed in multiple forms of popular media, with one such example being The Hunger Games (Ross 2012). As one author writes: “When Katniss, the daughter of a dead miner who survives by hunting on the land, is conveyed to the Capitol by high-speed train, it is as if the nineteenth century is brought face to future-shocked face with twenty-first century media culture…”(Fisher). Thus, this movie symbolizes our resistance towards the transition into a media-filled culture, and mirrors these worries of a future ruled by technology.
The movie introduces Panem, a country divided into 12 poverty-stricken districts,whose totalitarian government forces two tributes from each district to fight to the death once a year, until only one tribute is left standing. The Hunger Games were set up after the districts rebelled against the government many years back. They serve as a reminder, so that the districts remain obedient. The two tributes, one male and one female, are selected by random draw.
As the citizens of Panem grow older, more entries are put into the selection pool every year on their behalf. This dystopian view mirrors our own struggles with technological advances: The oppression felt by the people of Panem reflects our anxieties about the takeover of technology and media, which have already begun to run our lives. In fact, it is not just the oppressive government that symbolizes technology: the Hunger Games themselves, essentially a “death game” disguised as reality TV, symbolize how the media is consuming us; we are so involved in social media and other people’s lives that we often forget to live our own.
The idea that there will be a death of humanity in the future, as mentioned in dystopia’s definition, is a common belief in those who view the future with such a lens. As Paul Virilio writes:
…soon, as more or less passive witnesses… we shall see the imminent invasion of our bodies…thanks to the interactive feats of a biotechnological miniaturization that will finish off the job of those flourishing large-scale mass communication tools that already govern our society (50).
Indeed, Virilio is suggesting that we may one day be controlled by our very own inventions. The machines will infect us like parasites, eating away at our humanity until nothing remains.
