Feed
When I first started reading Feed, I was very disappointing. I thought it was very slow and almost stupid. The vocabulary of the protagonist, Titus, was not what I thought a high-schooler's vocabulary should be-- it was terrible. Titus used the word "like" obsessively while also using slang like "mal" that I had no idea what it meant. He sounded uneducated. After I read the book more, I found out that the reason he talked like he did was because of a chip-like program installed in his brain. It was called Feed. When he first talked about it, he said that it started as computers outside of the body and then transitioned into the Feed. The Feed is the internet, ads, social media, and tv all inside your head. With the Feed, Titus is able to message his friends through their feed too. It is a very interesting concept.
The thing that scares me the most about this book is the fact that we are not far from that. Once Titus and his friends got hacked at a party, their feed was shut off. They did not know how to act. They could not really socialize with each other because their whole life revolved around the Feed. This is not far from current day. When you are out in public, look around and observe others. How many are on their phones. I'd say about 80%. How about when you are out to eat? How many teenagers are with their families actually talking? Not many, most are on their phones. What about when parents want their children to be quiet? Do they teach them the appropriate behavior? Most just take the easy way out and put a screen in front of their child. In the book, Titus and his friends did not know how to write. Instead of teaching cursive writing, kids now learn how to type.
This book would be very beneficial for high-schoolers to read. It allows the topic of social media and the internet addiction to be talked about. It opens many doorways to good conversations about what the future could look like if we kept on with social media and internet addiction. It also can raise awareness to how detrimental our feed can be. The effect that social media have on teenagers(and anybody actually) is very serious and should talked about.
The thing that scares me the most about this book is the fact that we are not far from that. Once Titus and his friends got hacked at a party, their feed was shut off. They did not know how to act. They could not really socialize with each other because their whole life revolved around the Feed. This is not far from current day. When you are out in public, look around and observe others. How many are on their phones. I'd say about 80%. How about when you are out to eat? How many teenagers are with their families actually talking? Not many, most are on their phones. What about when parents want their children to be quiet? Do they teach them the appropriate behavior? Most just take the easy way out and put a screen in front of their child. In the book, Titus and his friends did not know how to write. Instead of teaching cursive writing, kids now learn how to type.
This book would be very beneficial for high-schoolers to read. It allows the topic of social media and the internet addiction to be talked about. It opens many doorways to good conversations about what the future could look like if we kept on with social media and internet addiction. It also can raise awareness to how detrimental our feed can be. The effect that social media have on teenagers(and anybody actually) is very serious and should talked about.
When I read Feed, I was super confused at first, too. But as I got into it, I realized that the words like "mal" weren't so different than what we say. We say "wasted" to refer to someone who is drunk, or "stoned" to refer to someone that is high. I thought the slang part of the book was probably the most interesting, because like slang in general, its relevant to their time. I also think it's super relevant to today, and that it's true to its genre in that it serves as a warning to what happens when science overrides man, and man lets it.
ReplyDelete