How is technology used in 1984?

The Party exerts its control using a variety of technological tools. The telescreen is used to issue propaganda, to control what people see and hear, and to watch people in their homes, to prevent them from doing anything that would be considered anti-Party. The Party also uses helicopters to watch people when they are outside, making sure they don’t spend much time by themselves. The Ministry of Love uses a dial machine that delivers painful shocks to prisoners in order to reprogram them to accept the Party’s version of truth. All of these tools are used to spy on and to harm people, ensuring their obedience to the Party. There are no positive uses of technology in this novel, because, in the words of O’Brien, “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power.”