Times Have Changed

            In today’s time you constantly hear about how everyone has the world in the palm of their hands but what if this saying could be taken a step further, to the point where you don’t even need to hold anything in your hands and still have it all. The book Feed by M.T. Anderson takes place in the future and everyone in this future is pressured to get a chip inserted into their head. This chip is known as the “Feed” and it allows the user to do everything technology today can do and more and it is all controlled through the persons thought. In this book though the future isn’t all that great; the U.S. is not liked by the rest of the world, big corporations run everything, and every person is fully dependent on the Feed to get them through their day to day life. The culture in this futuristic society has changed drastically because of the Feed. The way people think, act and talk is all altered due to the human dependency of this technology and because the information constantly being projected in their head is information that the government wants people to see and believe.

            In this novel, also like in today’s society, everyone is fully dependent on technology. Using the feed the characters in the story are capable of doing almost anything they can think of. They are able to watch TV shows, play games, broadcast the news, chat with friends, shop and look up information all through the feed. Titus explains how the feed has made life so much easier for people. “. . . it’s really great to know everything about everything whenever we want, to have it just like, in our brain, just sitting there” (49). This is showing how people think the feed is so great and that if they didn’t have it life as they know it would so much harder. This can also relate to today’s society because without computers or iPhones nobody would really know how to find something out or look up information that they needed. After Titus and his friends were hacked and sitting in the hospital room Titus begins talking about missing the feed and why everyone is so lost without it. “It’s more now, it’s not so much about the educational stuff but more regarding the fact that everything that goes on, goes on on the feed” (48). This shows that everything that goes on in day to day life is somehow tied into or involved with the feed, making everyone in society so dependent on it. Kind of like in today’s world how if I were to lose or forget my phone somewhere for the time I don’t have it I woud feel so lost and out of place. People today feel like they need their phone to function and without it they are out of the loop and cut off from the rest of the world. Towards the beginning of the book after they were hacked Titus says “The thing that made me pissy was when they couldn’t help me at all, so I was just lying there, and couldn’t play any of the games on the feed, and couldn’t chat anyone, and I couldn’t do a fuckin’ thing except look at the stupid boat painting” (49). This is showing how the characters in the story feel as though they can’t do a single thing but sit and look at the wall when they don’t have their feed. Since Loga was the only one in the group that wasn’t touched by the hacker her feed was still working fine. When Loga came to visit everyone she was bombarded with questions and everyone wanted her to talk to them and bring them up to date with everything they were missing without the feed. Titus about how when she started talking “. . . we all gathered around her in our little gowns, and she sat there cross-legged on the bed and told us” (58). When people are out of the loop they will do anything to find out what’s been going on and Loga was their source of information. Throughout the book you begin to notice how the dependency of the feed is so great that it is literally changing the way people live their lives and without it they cannot function. In the story though not being able to function without technology is not just figurative but literal. Violet explains, “I could lose my ability to move; I could lose my ability to think. Anything. It’s tied in everywhere. They said the limbic system, the motor cortex… the hippocampus. They listed all this stuff. If the feed fails too severely, it could interfere with basic processes. My heart could just . . .” (171). This dependency that people in society grow up with is effecting everyday life and though some of it is for the better the downfalls that can come with it are far worse.

            The characters in the book rely on the feed to read them text, figure out the meaning or spelling of a word and to find any bit of information they desire. But is this technology truly advancing and helping society today? Just about everyone with a feed will tell you yes. Titus explains, “Everyone is supersmart now. You can look things up automatic, like science and history, like if you want to know which battles of the Civil War George Washington fought in and shit” (47). Supersmart? Or is everyone actually really dumb now because they rely on the feed to find information and without it they wouldn’t know a thing. The same as in society today people seem to be growing up needing to know less and less things because they can search whatever they need. We don’t notice it but we are retaining less and less general knowledge because technology is able to do everything for us. In everyday life people use Google to look up whatever they want and don’t need to know a thing, when we want to talk to someone we can send them a text and be fine with never actually having a true conversation involving emotions and even when we need to go somewhere we don’t have to have the slightest sense of direction because we can just follow a GPS. This perception of being supersmart without ever working is destroying our true knowledge and intelligence. Titus is one of the many that have fallen into this perception. When talking about school systems in the past Titus says, “Back then, it was big boring, and all the kids were meg null, because they didn’t learn anything useful . . .” (109).  Titus then goes on to talk about how in his school they learn all the important things like how to work technology and how to find bargains and what’s the best way to get a job and how to decorate your bedroom. Which just shows that Titus feels there is no need to learn the same stuff that was taught in the past because if he truly wanted to know it he can look it up using his feed. Violet is one of the few actually realize that more and more people are lacking intelligence because of technology. In the story she says, “Because of the feed, we’re raising a nation of idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots” (113). In everyone else’s eyes all this new technology has improved intelligence but it is not the actual person doing the thinking it is a piece of equipment that has the knowledge and does the work.

             The social skills which are starting to fade in today’s world are near gone in this novel. People are so used to using technology to communicate and interact that when it comes to actually talking face to face or interacting one on one most of the characters struggle. Earlier on in the book when everyone was still in the hospital Violet was sitting next to Titus’ bed and started crying and told Titus that all she wanted was one night where she could just have fun and feel like a normal kid but of course they were all hacked and now she is screwed. Titus is not used to this type of interaction with people and was unsure of what to say to make Violet feel better so he just sat there with her and didn’t say a word. This is a part that stuck out to me because Titus would rather not say a word and just sit there in awkward silence thinking everything is fine instead of at least attempting to make Violet feel better. Shortly after this incident Titus’ dad made his way to the room to see how Titus was doing. Titus explains about when his dad entered the room to see him. “He stood there staring at me for a few seconds, and I was like, ‘What? What?’ He seemed surprised, and then he blinked. He said, ‘Oh. Shit. Yeah, I forgot. No m-chat. Just talking’” (55). This just shows that even when a major incident just happened to his son and he is finally seeing him for the first time that he would rather chat over the feed then talk to him in person. It also points out that people are starting to feel that talking is too much of a hassle or too much extra work and think it is more convenient and easy to do it over chat. Another example of how social skills in this novel are dwindling is when Titus says, “For most of the day since we woke up after the attack, we had stared at the walls. We’d been sitting in out beds, and we tapped our feet on the rails” (51). This is showing that nobody knew what to do or say without being connected to the feed. It seems as though everyone just felt lost and couldn’t pull themselves to talk or find a fun activity to take their minds off what had happened.

            Though most of the civilization in this novel feel that the feed and other technology enhancements are doing wonders when it comes to improving life and intelligence they are wrong. The feed is only changing society for the worse. Through the examples I have given, you are able to see how dependence, lack of social skills, and lack of natural intelligence are all an effect due to the feed. The way people think, act, and talk have changed so drastically from the past that is seems as though society is on a path that will only get worse.