Disconnected Dystopia

A virtual world of shepherds and sheep. And one man determined to control everybody.

“Through his creation of the Computer Party, he brought into being two classes: those who have access to the powerful technology, called the shepherds, and those who were controlled, called the sheep. He didn’t want to lose power, so he made sure that everyone became addicted to their phones and computers.”

It was the year 2224 and the leader of the United States, which had become a dictatorship, was Oliver Austin, a man who took over the country by using technology to control everyone’s minds. Through his creation of the Computer Party, he brought into being two classes: those who have access to the powerful technology, called the shepherds, and those who were controlled, called the sheep. He didn’t want to lose power, so he made sure that everyone became addicted to their phones and computers. This way, no one would leave their house, and everyone would be too lazy to gather together and uproot him as leader. Instead, he created a virtual world. Virtual school. Virtual gatherings. Virtual shopping malls. Virtual amusement parks. Everything virtual. 

If the sheep wanted to go out shopping with their friends, attend a Christmas party, or study with their classmates, they would send out their hologram so they can stay at home while controlling their every action from their couch. Most of the houses that the people live in are very white and bland. They don't have comfortable cozy blankets or pillows, they have very little furniture and no personal decorations. Most houses only have a TV, computer, phone, couch, and sometimes a bed. In every single room, they have a holographic projector. They use their projector for almost everything, to see their friends, family, and co-workers. 

The leader Oliver Austin had only one son, who was 15, named Liam Austin. He was pretty popular and a lot of people respected him since he was the leader's son. Since a lot of people looked up to him, he always had an attitude of thinking that nobody could be higher than him, similar to the way his father felt.  He was next in line to become the leader and his father showed him all of the ways to control everyone's mind by using technology. He calls Liam over to his royal office surrounded by hundreds of computers and projectors.  He showed him his new plan for getting everyone addicted to this new social media app called “Insta-tok.”

“See how easy it is to control people’s minds with these apps?” his father said.

“Are you sure we should be doing this? Hey, wait a minute, that profile belongs to a kid

at my school, Mateus Smith. What are you doing on there?” Liam replied, scared.

His father replied back irritated, “You know this person? This annoying little hacker keeps breaking into my system. I don’t know how to fix it. We have to...get rid of him.” 

Liam said, “His hologram is always playing his video games. he doesn’t talk.”

Back when Oliver Austin first became the new leader, Mateus’s parents did not follow the rest of the crowd that became addicted to technology. Unlike everyone else’s house, bland and boring, Mateus’s parents had many personal decorations and colorful furniture, they were not brainwashed by Oliver’s technology. 

His parents rebelled against him by not downloading the apps and not transferring their whole life and private information to the leader. When Oliver Austin was on his computer with everyone’s information, he saw that there was one family not falling for his social media apps. This infuriated Oliver Austin, as he felt scared and anxious because he needed everybody in the country to be under his hands. He tried his hardest to improve his social media apps to make them more addicting. They made it clear that they wouldn’t download the apps and refused to hand over their private life to the leader. They did not trust him. However, Oliver Austin did not allow this. Anyone who refused to fall into his apps and give him their whole life was a threat to his power. 

They at first received a warning from the system, to download the apps and change the way they are living to a better version. When they still refused, Oliver Austin was anxious that they were going to ruin his plan, so he chose to eliminate Mateus’s parents. Their deaths were covered up secretly and no one knew the truth except for Mateus. He was only 13 at the time, and he saw his parents die right in front of his eyes. He knew all along that his parents did not want to give up their whole life to technology and that they had been killed because they did not obey Oliver Austin’s warning. 

Since that day, Mateus said to himself eagerly, “They took everything from me... I'm going to make sure that this system collapses.” Even though he felt overwhelmed and depressed, it fueled his next move to get revenge. Every single day, even while Mateus sent his hologram to school, he would lock himself in his room and have his computer turned on for weeks digging deeper into the system, hacking through the passwords and security codes. 

With each hack Mateus gathered so much evidence of all the lies, deaths, and how much control the Austins had over everyone. With all this sensitive information, he hacked into the mainframe that Oliver Austin used to manipulate and take control of people’s minds. 

Mateus had to say his truth before it’s too late. In fear he turns on his mic and confidently states, “Oliver Austin is not your leader. He's a murderer and a liar. he's been controlling all of your lives from his computer! Wake up before it's too late.” Mateus’s voice echoed through everyone’s screens. 

People slowly started to hear what Mateus had said. They started to see the truth. The world started to shift little by little, protesting against this dictatorship and technology. As the country started to get out of control, Oliver Austin was getting bashed harshly for keeping all these secrets from them. 

Oliver Austin’s voice rang out in the TVs, “You guys, do not listen to this random hacker. I did this for your own good. Without control, this whole society will fall apart. I only built this system for your safety to keep everyone safe.”

While all of this chaos was happening with Oliver Austin, Liam was also very scared. In his head, his father was just trying to keep everyone safe. He was the shepherd of all the sheep and when a sheep causes chaos in the flock, you know what you have to do. He felt so sorry to his father that people are treating him like this, after all that he has done. 

“I can't believe that they are treating you like this Dad,” Liam says in sadness. 

His father then replies in anger, “I know Liam, but everything will be okay. I will not let them be free again. it is better for them to be under control.” 

While Oliver is showing his new plan to get everyone even more addicted and detached, Liam watches closely at his screen. 

“Look at this,” Oliver says giggling, clicking on a new app. “This app will track every movement, every thought, every desire. We’ll know what they want before they even know it themselves. Their minds will be under my control, and I can control them even better.” 

Liam looked at the screen nervously, He saw the names of millions of different people and all of their private information and secrets, all of it was right in front of him. His father wasn't just tracking their private information, he was controlling their lives and manipulating them. Even though Liam has been learning these things from his father all of his life, this time it felt different for him. He was being shown the power to control everything. The app was almost done being set up.

 “I have created the perfect system. this will get everyone addicted, their every single move will be controlled,” Oliver says. 

Liam stared at the screen once more. He got the chills. He saw so many profiles, faces, private messages, and things that were never supposed to be seen. Oliver's plan was to take this private information and to take away their ability to think, making them do whatever Oliver wanted them to do. 

Oliver Austin started feeling at ease again. He was going to broadcast this to the people tomorrow. He went to bed smiling thinking everything would be back to normal. 

On the next day, before he could even broadcast his new app, Oliver Austin was assassinated in a coup d’etat, turning the country back into a democracy. 

The bell rang. It was the end of the third period. Liam was getting ready to go to lunch but he checked his phone and received thousands of messages and notifications about his father’s assassination. Liam was in disbelief, thinking that this was fake news. 

As he tried to contact his dad, his classmates and his teacher surrounded him asking, “Did you hear about your dad?” his teacher said worried.

“Finally, I heard that he was controlling us the whole time,” his other classmate says.  Everyone was cheering that his dad was no longer the leader. 

Liam felt so angry. He couldn't believe that his father’s reign was actually over. He pushed everyone away from him and ran out the classroom door ignoring everyone’s gossip. As he saw everyone celebrating his father‘s death, he was enraged that he was no longer in line to become the next leader. He told himself that it still wasn’t over. His dad gave him everything that had controlled the people. All of the tools of technology that could sway people’s minds were all his now. As Liam walked back home, he told himself he would use the technology to finish what his dad started and that he would take revenge. 

Meanwhile since Mateus Smith had told everyone the truth before Oliver Austin got to manipulate them again, he felt like the world was going to be a much better place. He imagined that slowly everyone would start going to school as actual people and not just a hologram, that they would all gather together to have dinner, and to not have some phone or computer controlling their personal lives. He knew that his parents would be so proud of him. 

The death of Oliver Austin spread like wildfire. The leader who had everything under control, who was once broadcasted in everyone's homes is now gone. People had all sorts of emotions. Some were staring at their screens in disbelief and some were happy that he was no longer going to control them. As the days passed slowly, people began to come out from their homes, realizing how beautiful the outside world was. Even though they still had a lot of technology in the outside world, just being able to go outside and feel the breeze of wind go across their faces. More people began to emerge out of their virtual lives, the streets that were once so quiet with people only focused on their devices, had become life with citizens gathered all together. 

When Mateus saw that the world was becoming a better place and that this was just the beginning, he felt proud of himself. He imagined that slowly everyone would start going to school as actual people and not just as holograms, that they would all gather together to have dinner and to not have some phone or computer controlling their personal lives. He knew that his parents would be so proud of him.

He said to himself, “I'm so glad that I tried my hardest to take Austin down. I hope that you are proud of me, Mom and Dad. You guys would’ve loved this world full of freedom.”

He then promised himself that he would never let technology get in the way of everyone’s life and that he would keep the country safe because that's what his parents would've wanted. 

Because of all of the heroic actions of Mateus, there were no longer shepherds and sheep. People started to realize that technology could not control their minds, and that they could live a meaningful life without their screens. As more and more people gathered together, the country started to go back to a democracy. The Computer Party was now disconnected.