In a world chastised by the ability for individuals to express themselves, its fairly common to see hypocrisy come into play. George Orwell's novel "1984" clearly poses a threat to our modern day society as it proposes a question: will being unique continue to be a crime?

Living in modern day America, we are set on individualistic values. Comparative to other countries and cultures, our nation is set on the principle of self expression through the fashion industry, the art industry, and the social media world.

We tell each other to “Be yourself!” “Try to be comfortable!” and “Let go!” whilst we embody the actual opposite.

Since middle school, we were faced with the difficult decision to conform to our friends, to be influenced by our environment and to live up to the expectations of other people.

I was the one who payed $30 for a shirt at Hollister, who forced myself to wear white vans, and who spent 3 hours straightening her hair for a world defined by our ability to collectivize, and thus work as one whole unit. Anyone who is different, ought to be persecuted (verbally).

We pretend like it’s a normal, daily routine to occur even to this day, yet as a holistic unit fail to see the detrimental harm it poses for our future. If we normalize collectivism, and degrade individualistic thought, we will foresee a future similar to that of "1984": where the mere purpose is to look the same and talk the same (perhaps in a language we won’t even be able to comprehend anymore).

The next thing you know, Apple’s Macintosh commercial will mimic our world in 2084, and will bring light to the future we didn’t want but pursued because we were too scared to speak up.

We will delve into a world with a lack of true thought, growth and advancement. At that point in time, “war” will become “peace” and will thus result in World War III or IV for that matter, turning international foreign policy into a subject we no longer want to talk about. Our ability to desire “freedom,” will be turned down by the ideology that it is in fact “slavery,” and cannot be supported in any possible way. And finally, our “ignorance” to expressing ourselves in an individualistic way will be our nation’s “strength,” and that is when we know the world is over.

How do we prevent this?

We stop degrading the idea of being unique. Perhaps the first medium is to support individualistic blogging over picture posting on social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram. This is the most efficient way to bring about more unique thoughts. By creating a blog, each blogger is able to create their own unique platform and post about values and tactile objects that matter to them. This differs from social media platforms, where the mere idea is to post for popularity and attention purposes, thus supporting collectivist ideals.

The minute we decide to switch our form of expression, is the minute we initiate change, and begin to move in the right direction.

In this world, we won’t be spending money on shoes or attire, and will let our hair flow naturally.

We won’t initiate war, take away freedom, or stray away from the truth.