Dystopia in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Social Media, and the Shifting of Dystopian Themes in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction

In this thesis, I argue that the rise of social media and modern technology has transformed surveillance and dystopian literature, requiring the need for further investigation to conceptualize these novels and understand how contemporary young adult authors address our current reality. Using George Orwell’s 1984 and Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish as theoretical frameworks, this study explores how modern dystopian fiction has evolved to reflect anxieties surrounding surveillance, social media, cancel culture, and digital governing. The first chapter contextualizes Orwell’s lasting impact on the dystopian genre, demonstrating how his work provided culturally relevant critiques of authoritarianism. The second chapter examines how Foucault’s theories on topics such as supervision, prisons, and the panopticon apply to both fictional societies and real-world surveillance structures. In the final chapter, I explain how modern young adult dystopian literature expands on Orwell and Foucault’s frameworks by depicting voluntary participation in self-surveillance, where characters internalize societal norms for validation and social status.