Time To Feed You

M.T. Anderson wrote a book called Feed, which could possibly be what our future consists of. Who knows.. maybe within the next century, we'll be living like the characters in Feed lived. That'd be kinda crazy and scary don't you think? I'm pretty sure M.T. Anderson wrote this book as a fiction book and didn't actually believe or think this could ever happen but who really knows what could happen? Nowadays, technology is taking over our lives and soon enough we could possibly live in a world that would not even exist without technology. 

The "feed" is a very advanced form of technology that is installed into people's heads. With the "feed" comes with basically every form of social media you can think of, (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat) texting, calling, communicating, playing video games, and so much more beyond that. The "feed" is just as much a part of the human body as your head, arms, and legs are. It is basically a smartphone that is installed inside your body.

In today's society, almost no one can keep their hands off their phones. If everyone made a bet to not use their phones for 24 hours, how many people do you think would actually win the bet?? Probably not a lot of people right? I know I would probably be the first one to lose.. I can't even stay off my phone for an hour and 15 minutes so how the hell would I even be able to stay off my phone for a whole 24 hours?! 

"For a while we played a game with the ball, and we were twirling all over the place, and we were like, what it's called when you skim really close over the surface of something, we were that to the floor, with our arms out, but of course Marty started winning all the time, and Link, who doesn't like to lose, was like, 'This is null. This sucks.'

'Pass,' said Marty. 'What's fuckin' doing?'

'That this place sucks,' said Link.

Marty said, 'Give it a chance, unit.'

But Link was like, 'No. Play by yourself. Play with yourself,' and suddenly everything seemed really stupid." (Anderson 13)

Basically, they're playing a ball game in their heads and the "feed" allows them to have some sort of telepathy and read each other's minds so that they can all play together. What if some time in the future, there will be chips inserted in our minds just like the "feed" that allows us to play mind games just like Titus, Marty, and Link were doing with the ball.

It truly is scary to think about how much technology affects our everyday lives. At this point, can anyone actually live without it? Our whole world is basically based on technology. My three year old cousin has her own iPad, knows the passcode to it, and knows how to look for and go to the YouTube app and search up videos......when I was three, I played with barbie dolls, played outside, went to the park, and I did all of that without even having any idea of what a computer was. I have another cousin who is eight months old and she knows how to turn on the tv.. Maybe it's just a coincidence? Maybe she's just pressing random buttons on the remote but it's so weird that she whines when the tv is off and once she presses that button, she stops crying?? Hmm... it made me think. If three year olds today can figure out how to use technology, what would newborns be able to do in 30 years? I know they probably won't be able to anything technology related, but hey, just think about how crazy that would be.

When I read this book, I kept thinking that their dialogue was spoken but really they just communicated with one another through their minds. If you really think about it, that's kinda how the world is now... I don't mean that people communicate with one another through their minds, but there was so much more spoken dialogue 40 years ago than there is now. Forty years ago there was barely any technology so people usually just talked to each other in person... but now that we have cell phones, laptops, and social media, everyone seems to just talk to one another through text, FaceTime, Instagram, Snapchat, and so on. It's almost like spoken dialogue face to face is being avoided. 

I feel like it's so much easier to talk to someone through text than it is to talk to them in person. For example, say someone messages you on Instagram telling you to text them.. You text them and apparently you guys have so much to talk about while you're texting but once you see them in person there's an awkward silence. Why does that happen though? Is it because you guys already said everything you wanted to say and asked each other everything you wanted to know?? Or is it because technology just makes everything so much easier? When you and a friend split up, it's more common now to say "okay I'm gonna text you" or "I'll call you later" than before when people used to say "see you later" or "let's meet up again." Does anyone even need to meet up to hang out anymore or can we all just call each other on FaceTime or Skype?

The "feed" is basically the technology we have times 20 and is installed inside us. We live in a world where technology is so important to us and we think we can't live without it... But in the book Feed, Titus and his friends actually cannot live without it. The only one who actually knows what it's like living without the "feed" is Violet because she actually did once upon a time... Good for her cause I can't imagine that being me. Imagine living in a world without technology... everything would obviously be so different than what it is now.. and M.T. Anderson probably would have never created this book.

Andrea I.