Is Technology Hindering Humanity?


Image result for feed by mt andersonI am currently reading the novel Feed written by M.T Anderson. I have read up to page 204 and it has been interesting so far.  Up to this point this story has been about a teenage boy named Titus and his friends that live in this futuristic world where they have basically the internet put into their brains which is called the Feed. The Feed is controlled by the corporations so there are always a lot of ads popping up showing products based off of one’s passed purchases and emotions. The Feed also allows people to chat with one another without talking, and gives suggestions of what to say. That might sound cool, but because he grew up with this technology many of the people in the book lack a decent vocabulary. There was a point that Quendy and Calista were making fun of Violet for using big words, and Titus tried to describe a spin as supple. I am not a doctor but if you have a supple spin than you would look like an inflatable tube men outside of a car dealership. I don’t know why but they remind me of Griff Tannen and his group of goons from Back to the Future?

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It could just be me.

Anyway, Titus and his group of friends had their feeds hacked at a party and they had to go to a hospital to get it fixed, while they were there without their feeds they created a game and actually showed that they were capable of having an imagination and thinking for themselves. Once they got it back is was like the best thing ever and the life they were living would be awful without the feed. Later, Titus’s parents bought him a new upcar, which is a flying car to cheer him up after the hack. Why is every guy excited to get a car? So they can pick up girls which is exactly what Titus does. He takes his girlfriend Violet, who he met at the hacker party, to another party where they were playing spin the bottle in the basement. Violet started yelling about how stupid it was when she began to uncontrollably shake and then she collapsed. The problem was that she got her feed later than everyone else because her family was old fashioned and didn’t want her to grow up with one and they couldn’t afford it. She got her feed after she was fully formed so now it doesn’t fit right. Violet said “The feed is tied into everything. Your body control, your emotions, your memory.” (pg. 170). The software of the feed is starting to deteriorate and she could possibly die because it is connected to every part of the body. This got me thinking that this could happen to us in the future.




Image result for bilbo baggins i'm going on an adventure gif
Me going somewhere without a GPS
Besides the feed in their brains there isn’t that big of a difference between the teens today and the teens of Feed. The only difference I can tell is that the teens of feed don’t speak real English, and they like to see the inside of their women. In reaction to the lesions on Quendy Marty said “makes you kind of think about what’s inside, huh? Which is sexy.” (pg. 199). Whatever floats your boat I guess, I know the first thing that I look for in a woman is that she has really good tendons, it’s what makes or breaks the relationship. The similarities are that we are both obsessed about our technology and rely on it too much and it is affecting our bodies. Teens today and in the story Feed rely on technology to remind us of things which is hurting out memory and making us more forgetful than ever, both can’t get anywhere without a GPS, care to much about trends, say things that many other people do not understand, and don’t get enough sleep which can cause a loss in brain tissue. Also, from birth we are surrounded by the media and television shows which makes us driven by consumer marketing. We are being told what is good and bad without even questioning why. See, not that different after all.

What I see happening in the story is that the feed is killing critical thinking and it seems like Violet is the key to “save humanity”. She represents the old way of thinking, speaking and living and you can see Titus is starting to change because he can now drive to her house without using a GPS and he is remembering the names of the buildings leading up to her house because he knows he is getting closer to her. It is a small thing, but I thought it was an interesting thing that was mentioned. Love will make you do some crazy things. 



Related imageTechnology is advancing each and every day, now there are robots that perform surgeries, the Google Glass, Virtual Reality gaming, smart phones. We already have the feed in our lives it is just not implanted in our bodies. The feed is just like smartphones, it’s a fad and basically everyone has one except the old traditionalist like Violet’s dad. Technology is playing a larger role in our everyday lives more than ever before, and they have become a necessity. I wouldn’t be able to do 90 percent of my work for school without a computer. What I am trying to say is that this story depicts a future that we are not that far away from. Hey, the Simpsons did predict Donald Trump becoming president, and Back to the Future was one year off about the Cubs winning the World Series. Anything can happen I guess? The world is constantly becoming more technological, and humans are becoming lazier. Is technology corrupting our brains? Is humanity really doomed? Only time will tell.



Nick Y

Word count: 965



Work Cited

Anderson, M. T. Feed. London: Walker, 2013. Print.






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