Feed Blog post

By -
The book Feed is a book that was way ahead of its time in my opinion. The book was written in the year of 2002 and M.T Anderson does a great job at showing his view and ideas of what the future of technology would look like. The points in the book that were most compelling to me was that fact that not all Americans had the feed inside of their brains. This meant that about seventy percent of Americans were not gifted with certain databases or able to experience certain features of rare technology. In the book Titus considers himself normal to the kids around him but we see as the book starts to transpire and Titus is using the feed inside of his brain that he starts to become more captivating. 

While in class we discussed the different types of themes that were displayed in the book and the biggest one that stood out to me was consumerism. On page 97 in the book it says “They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with—the stories on the feed, the games, all of that--it's all streamlining our personalities so we’re easier to sell to” (Anderson, 97). This quote stands out so much because it shows how we all think when the newest item or the newest piece of technology is on the market. I can even say for myself that I often view things this way. Whenever the newest iPhone is about to come out I am always trying to make sure that I am on top of it and I want it. Not only is this consumerism but this also falls under the manipulation category in my opinion. The big companies that we buy technology from know that whenever they drop the newest phone, earphones, or laptops, that the consumers are indeed going to buy them. Overall I enjoyed this book so much because it touches on the realness that we face as humans. My generation definitely has a big issue with social media and different forms of technologies and in a way they definitely handicap us. Anderson does a great job at seeing this at such an early point in the 2000’s and my main question to him now would definitely be “What do you think about this now?”.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Speak and the Symbolism of Nature

By Anonymous -
   Laurie Halse Anderson's,  Speak , dives into the murky, muddy waters of adolescent rape culture. When the book was published in 1999, rape was not a comfortable topic to discuss with adults, let alone teenagers. Anderson writes about Melinda Sordino and her freshman high school experience which is turning out to be rather negative. Soriano stands as a thriving young role model for struggling teenage girls all over the world. Although she isn't an outstanding student or have plenty of friends to juggle, through Melinda, other young women can see that it's completely normal and okay to struggle in high school not only academically, but socially and emotionally. One of my favorite parts of the novel isn't a super obvious quality. Throughout the novel, Melinda's attitude changes and grows with the coming of spring and through nature and art, she learns to move past her troubling end of summer experience and once again find the importance of her voice.    Melinda st
Read more