-Jordan
Thursday, February 25, 2016
We just need a little Violet in us
Violet and I are Totally Twins
Have you ever noticed when you're out, maybe at the mall or the gym, that a majority of the population is on there phones? It’s sad to say, but it’s true. Everyone’s faced down staring into a screen instead of interacting with the world around them. I know when I go to the gym, my goal is to work out, not beat the next level of Candy Crush ( I’ve been stuck on it for months). So many are wasting their lives away in a virtual reality. There lives are being wasted by lack of communication skills, emotions, critical thinking, etc. It's crazy the capacity of what technology is capable of doing.What is Violet's worth in Feed? She is treated just like a consumer and they want you to buy and make money off you as well. Is this really how the world is now? Just like how when you shop for something, and head to Facebook and BAM there it is? And with YouTube now, there are ads you just can't skip. You're being forced to watch whatever it is that is trying to sell to you. In this day in age, our worth is valued by how much we buy and spend. So basically, with all this technology consuming our lives, we are going to become brain dead and broke. We can't even answer simple questions like what's the capital of Texas without asking Siri first...."It's a reference, he said, snotty. "It's from The Time Machine by H.G Wells."
I stepped closer to him. "What does it mean?"
"Read it."
"I'm sick of being told I'm stupid."
"Tell me."
"Read it."
"Tell me."
"You can look it up."
This novel was published in 2002 with the author setting the time for the far future, which in reality, all of this is happening now.Violet’s goal was to resist the feed and this way of life, and I’m right behind her. Through the span of reading this novel, I kept finding many similarities between Violet and I. I was surprised but felt like I could really relate to her character.
Here's a few examples …..
Growing up
I live in Verona, New Jersey, (AKA clique-est, snobbiest town in Northern Nj). That might be up for discussion, but from my experience that's how I feel. Every family that lives here is basically high middle class, with a white picket fence, and a family dog. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with type of lifestyle, but there has always been a major difference between myself, and the peers I've grown up with. My mom is a single mother and has raised me by herself. We live happily in cute apartment, with our cat, Oreo. Not to toot my own horn, but I think my mom did an amazing job raising me on her own. Even though while growing up, her and I went through obstacles, mostly financially, I believe we've came out better humans because of it. I came out with a respect for life, my belongings, and working hard for my success. I find myself similar to Violet in this way. She also grew up with one parent, and wasn't always financially stable. She had struggles like everyone else, but I felt like I could really relate. Some people may feel like they can't connect with her character in this way, but I feel like since we share this similarity, it's a different way to see her character. Another struggle her and I share was how to fit in a world (or town) where you grew up so differently then others.
Fitting in
One of Violet's major obstacles was the fact that she was different from everyone else. Titus was so attracted to her because she was so unlike everyone else on the moon, and that he's known.(See gif for Titus's infatuation). Violet was different not only because the way she was raised, but her outlook on life. While Titus thought going to the moon was "boring", Violet thought it was an amazing experience, and she wanted to capture every moment of it. They both had very different outlooks on life, and that in long run, is one of the reasons they didn't work out, I think. Towards the end of Violet's life, Titus and Violet argued about their relationship, and why they were even together. Violet liked him because he lived such a normal life. To be honest, there is no such thing as "normal" its just a construct made up. She believes Titus lives a normal life, but it is actually an "ignorant" life, where he actually doesn't have a clue what is going on. Violet actually sees reality and the real world, but because she wants to be so "normal" and like everyone else, she wish she didn't. To be honest, I think that is one of the reasons I'm so close to my best friend. She is one of the girls that lives a normal life, with the big, wealthy family, and even the pet dog. As a kid I liked spending so much time with her because it made me feel like I had a full family as well. I felt normal, just like everyone else. It wasn't until I was older that I realized it doesn't matter the quantity of a family, but the quality. (Cheesy, I know.) I felt like a normal kid when I spent time with her, so I can sorta relate to Violet. She thought that because she wasn't as financially wealthy, and didn't get her feed until later on, she was completely unlike the others. It is true that nowadays, if you don't keep up with the cultural change in fashion, and majorly in technology, you will be treated differently.
Technology
My mom hates almost all forms of technology. She hates laptops, cellphones, tablets, Ipods, Ipads, you name it, the list goes on. Of course because of her hard pressing hatred of all this technology, it eventually past down to be believing I don't need it as well. When everyone started to get cell phones in middle school, I didn't, which wasn't that uncommon, but still made me different then the rest. I didn't get my first phone until freshman year of high school and if I may say, I felt like the coolest kid ever. I was finally like everyone else, texting away stupid :) and :P. That goes to say, I didn't get an Iphone until like November of last year. LOL I'm kinda grateful that my mother did not make my life so surrounded with technology. Violet grew up without the feed, unlike the rest of her peers, and I believe that she is the one that came out with more positive attributes such as being able to communicate with others proficiently, and think for herself, without using her feed. Just like my mother, her father was a huge factor in her education. He taught her everything she knows, without using the feed. He says in the novel that he decided to get Violet the feed because he didn't want her to have any disadvantages in the world. He once was in a job interview with other men who all had a feed of their own, unlike him. Even though he was probably a better candidate for his job, he was looked down upon and treated disrespectfully, because his tech savvy wasn't up to their par. He didn't want that to ever happen to Violet so he let her have the feed. My mother says the only reason she ever let me get a phone was so that if I was out I was able to call her and let her know where I was. Deep down I believe she shares the same reasoning as Violet's dad also.
With all these similarities between Violet and I, there are definitely some differences such as....
1. I would never get so obsessed with a boy and expect him to be in love with in a short couple months, and then tell him I was dying and expect him not to freak out..... That whole bucket list grow old together thing kinda freaked me out tbh
2. Honestly, she was really extreme and kind of a weirdo
3.You'll never catch me in a wool dress
Andie B.
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.
Remember Who You Really Are
Titus’ character is difficult to follow throughout the novel, FEED by M.T. Anderson. His character originally seems to be very “go-with-the-flow” and is easily depicted as society’s ‘normal’ teenager. Throughout the book, it seems as though he is trying to mold his personality to be more similar to people he is around in that moment. In the beginning of the book, Titus didn’t think on his own— he was completely reliant on the feed.
When he was with his friends and they would make fun of Violet, most of the time he wouldn't do anything about it besides suggest that they stop. He was so scared that he would be outcasted if he wasn't exactly like everyone else.
When he was with Violet, alone, he enjoyed ‘refusing’ the feed, and truly enjoyed living life. Unlike when he was with his friends and ‘living’ was more of a simulation than reality. His outlook on his experiences changed drastically.
Titus’ attitude changed from “We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck” (Anderson 3) to “We were standing on the porch and it was much cooler out there…The night was perfect. We shut out music from the feed…I liked the way the synthetic breeze was on her hair” (88-91).
He no longer felt that he needed the feed to live or learn and understand events. By the end of the book, for example, he researched news on his own. This trait rubbed off of Violet and onto Titus, which built his character as an individual.
When Titus was around Violet’s father, he tried to speak properly and was careful about what he said. Not only did he try to sound the part, he also dressed formal the last time he visited Violet. Before visiting, Titus even researched current events to share with Violet to keep her up-to-date since she was unable to do so herself. I believe he did this to try to regain Violet and her father’s approval as well as an attempt for himself to no longer feel intellectually inferior to them. Especially after Violet’s father called him out for his actions toward Violet, pointing out “what happens to [products] once we discard them, once we throw them away” (290). This was his way of proving that he wasn’t ‘stupid’.
It frustrated me how much and how easily Titus molded his personality… it was hard to get a grip on who he was and what he stood for. His character isn’t as black and white as any college student would hope… At certain points he is a very sympathetic, loving and sociable character, but during other points in the book he is heartless and unfriendly.
As I read, I began to feel a connection to Titus and thought that I figured him out. I was able to relate to him and even sympathized for him in certain situations. However, when he lashed out on Violet at the mountain I felt a complete break in my relation to him because I would never treat another person the way he did, I can’t even rationalize how someone could.
“‘I keep picturing you dead already. It feels like being felt up by a zombie, okay? Thats what it feels like” (269). -Titus
“I came into this world alone…I didn't want to go out of it alone” (270). -Violet
“We’ve only been going out for a couple of months. And I'm supposed to act like we’re married. A couple of months. It’s not some big eternal thing. We should've broken up weeks ago. I would've if you hadn't been… I didn't sign up to go out with you forever when you're dead” (271-272). -Titus
Titus threw their relationship away as if it never meant anything to him. There was a HUGE difference in each of their perspective’s on their relationship which ultimately caused it to fail. Violet was much more mature and wanted commitment while Titus was immature and was simply seeking pleasure. Their relationship began to change his outlook on life and which scared him so much he completely broke away from it. Little did he know, Violet made him realize who he truly was.
Violet was by far his biggest motivation in the book. Originally, he tried to assimilate her into his group, and way of life. But the exact opposite happened. Violet motivated Titus to try to be a better person— a real person. Together they enjoyed life in the same innocent way, even though they came from very different backgrounds. Violet encouraged him to think on his own and pay attention to his surroundings—to enjoy them.
Violet pointed out how Titus was different from other people she’s met. She tried to reassure him of this even after they broke up by saying, “I am messaging you to say that I love you, and that you're completely wrong about me thinking you're stupid. I always thought you could teach me things. I was always waiting. You're not like the others. You say things that no one expects you to. You think you're stupid. You want to be stupid. But you're someone people could learn from” (276). She still cared about him and wanted him to see in himself what she saw in him.
I believe Titus represents the typical American. Just wanting to fit in, go with the flow and figure things out in the moment with no worry about his future. His biggest concern was ‘being cool’ which he eventually realized and admits, “It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it” (279). Titus stands for the change that some people are so desperately trying to make, but are too hesitant, too scared to do. His character proves that despite the external forces pushing you away from being independent, if you focus on what you desire you will be rewarded in the end. Although he fell back to his original state after he broke up with Violet, he didn't lose the part of him that she brought out. Unfortunately, it took Titus too long to realize what a treasure Violet was and how much she had truly affected his life. After her death I believe that Titus will not treat life the same, ignorant way he did before.
Kirsten K. Prompt 6.
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.
Titus Transformation
The novel Feed is a
futuristic satire novel filled with interesting characters. The one character
that really stuck out most amongst the rest was Titus. Titus is an upper middle
class teenage boy living in a futuristic time period where computerized chips
are installed inside of your head at birth (for the majority of the population).
Titus is a very unique character and plays a crucial role in this novel. Titus
was just like everyone else, just an average teenager who liked to party, get
drunk, go into mal, and living off the information that was given to him by the
feed. Titus started off the story as a miserable, lonely, depressed teen on a
trip to the moon with his friends. Titus didn’t get out of miserably slump
until he laid his eyes on a girl one night while out with his friends. When he
captured his first glimpse of her it was like she turned his whole world upside
down, he was infatuated by her. Titus eventually
meets her and finds out her name is Violet. It wasn’t until he really got to
know Violet and started dating her that he understood her point of view of the
world as a reality for what it really was. Violet helped him realize that while
he and his friends were living their lives and partying, the entire world was deteriorating
around them before their very eyes. Before he met Violet and she changed his
life Titus was simply just a product of the world around him. Their relationship
is what transformed Titus into someone who could share an emotional connection
with and individual, emotions that Titus has never felt before. These same emotions
are what caused Titus to push himself away from Violet and make himself distant
in her time of need. Peer pressure may have played a role but also since these
emotions were all very new to him he didn’t know how to control them. An example
would be when Violet took Titus to the mountains and she tried seducing him but
he wasn’t enjoying it. That’s when he told her to quit and said “it’s like
being felt up by a zombie”. Another
prime example of this come in the final chapter of the novel when Titus is
visiting Violet for the final time and he says “for the first time I cried” as
she is in her final moments. This final moment really captivates Titus
transition as just another consumer of the feed to someone who utilize Violets motives
of resisting the feed as that was the cause of her demise. Titus character may
not have been interpreted as a hero or as someone’s behavior that should be emulated,
but Titus character came a long way from being just another teenage boy living
life according to the feed. I feel like the author wanted Titus to be read as a
character that transforms himself into a better version of himself with the
help of Violet.
Prompt 6 Ricardo A.
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.
Just Keep Running Dude
In the beginning, I felt that I could relate and understand Titus’s struggle as a young man in this new technological world. He was different than his friends, he got the girl, a unique intelligent woman named Violet. But as the story progresses, and Titus is faced with heavy decisions, he starts to show his true colors as a man and what kind of people this society molds. After their traumatizing experience on the moon, the only person who’s feed was truly affected, was Violets. Now this wouldn’t be such a huge deal if the feed was connected to your body, affecting your brain as well as your nerves and immune system. later through the story, she goes on to tell Titus that her feed was slowly deteriorating(170 Anderson). As he found out that she was sure as dead, he started to distance himself. Now I understand, when you mourn or have trouble coping with heaving situations you may push those problems away, I’ve been in situations in my life where that seemed like the only option. Titus however, whether it was the guilt for bringing her there or just the shittiness of losing a loved one, he exiled her. On page 201 she has a complete melt down, understandably she's dying from the inside out. During the break down he supports her, but as they’re in the hospital he starts to question what she really had done. “I wanted Violet to be uninsane again, just a person who would touch my face”(211). she then even went to the extent of saying she was sorry, which didn’t hit home until her father screamed in his face on page 291. He is lacking this sympathy that’s hard for someone like myself to relate to.
When she starts to fade you see Titus lose his independence from his friends, looking for support to run from this weight on his shoulders. He was a relatively straight edged guy, but when Violet is headed to the gallows he malfunctions with his friends, and goes to the extent of seeing her while he's tripping sack(243). If I was put in the same situation, I’d like to think that I would have stayed with Violet until death. It’s a scenario much like if your significant other had cancer and was told they only had a few months left to live. Would you be there for them as they start to whither away? As the chemo and cancer slowly destroy their body, and you know that this person will soon be gone, do you support them until death or do you distance yourself because you think you can’t take the pain that comes with acceptance of their inevitable fate. Titus chooses selfishness, Violet, a broken human who used to be his other half, was treated almost disposable in his eyes. At one point violet sends him stories about her life, who she was when she was younger and her family. Once she's finished sending him her life story, he deletes it(254), honestly I’m not sure why. It may be that he doesn’t love this girl and for her to be so invested in him he becomes unattracted to her. “You were just planning this whole eternal thing, and I was supposed to automatically love you always, but I didn’t even know. I was just thinking about going out with you, and would have some fun for a few months…”(271). After that he ignored her, hanging out with friends and now dating Quendy, Titus went on to live his normal life as Violet slowly broke down. What an asshole. But then again, what am I to say about this guy? Obviously what he had done was not the right thing to do but how could he know any better. The way his society is conditioned, people are disposable and he had never been introduced to this kind of death, not knowing he should be making Violets last days her best. By the time he realized what wrong he had done she was already gone, almost lobotomized. He didn’t even initiate the visit, Violet's father messaged him, telling him that she wanted to let Titus know when she was completely gone(283). I would be lying if I didn’t say I hate Titus, because I do. Whether or not he will resist the Feed now doesn’t really matter to me. He abandoned this girl, sure he didn’t know her for very long, but for me to put myself in his shoes, I can’t even fathom how he took the actions he did. Anderson creates a terrifying representation of what our humanity will become as technology becomes a more immersive part of our lives. Luke D. Prompt 2
Works Cited
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.
I Am Feed, You Are Feed, We All Are Feed
We are basically living in a Feed society as of now are we not? I mean hardly anyone can ever put their phones down as it is so why not just implant them in our brains now? As much as I would love to think I'm not, I know I am always on my phone. Think about it; texting, talking, searching for something on the internet, or scrolling up and down social media a hundred times consumes a ton of our time. In fact, it consumes our entire human population whether we like it or not because we truly can't escape. It is all around us. I will even take it as far as saying that it has changed the way human kind thinks. Come on! Just admit it already! We are all guilty of taking the easy way out and letting either our phones, computers, tablets, televisions, and yes even billboards and advertisements act as our brains. They influence our thoughts, emotion, how we communicate, and why we choose to do certain things. Sounds just like the Feed now huh?
Well I can definitely relate that is for sure. I guess I must come to turns that I and every one else from this generation has grown up in a pretty shitty time to be quite frank with you. Just like the feed we are born to be catered to. Every thing we do is either because we we taught it, or because we were some how influenced by society. What we think becomes an advertisement or a banner like in Feed. For example when Titus says "When we got off the ship, our feeds were going fugue with all the banners. The hotels were jumping on each other, and there was bumff from like the casinos and mud slides and gift shops and places where you could rent extra arms"(Anderson 8). They had just gotten off of the ship on the moon and were all ready being exposed and were being sold too. Kinda like when we search for things on the internet, the advertisements that we are exposed to are based off of previous searches, to try to get our interests and things we will buy. Our internet knows who we are, what we like, what we don't like, what we wear and so on. Scary shit. We might as well just be robots that follow every command by society and conform to the consumerist market ploys and tactics. We do it anyway right?
I can relate to all of the characters in this novel solely based on the fact that they are trapped, and we also are trapped. Trapped to think a certain way, and act a certain to societies standards. Even violet can't help but to not be controlled even by resisting. Which raises a very good moral question. Were the characters in the feed really free? Are we really free? The answer is up for your interpretation but I would argue that we are not, and they are not. How can we be free in a land where we place labels on each other, or the facts that we are all forced to be exposed to change. You could argue that violet tried to be free but what happened? She died. You are not truly free if you can not choose the consequences or your actions right? Just like how we can not control the consequences and the effects that media and advertisements have on who we are as individuals. Violet said it best.
"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 stream-lining our personalities so we're easier to sell to... They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one their types for easy marketing... so we get less and less varied as people, more simple" (97)
I grew up in an age where we don't truly have choice. We can only choose the paths that are already laid our because that's how we are trained by society. Either consciously or sub-consciously we are forced to conform all of our thoughts, onions and views, because that is what we have been exposed to all of our life.
- Dylan Prompt 2
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2002. Print.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Meg Tech Dependency Dude.
I like to think of what people used to do in elevators before we had computers in our pockets. Obviously I know, but was it as awkward with strangers as it is now? I at least try to conversation if it seems appropriate because unless you're already using your phone before the doors close it’s still uncomfortable. Even when you are occupied in silence, you're just waiting for the doors to open as you bolt out and get on with your life. That’s pretty damn. What's crazy is that our lives now would be considered a never ending elevator ride compared to that of the Feeds generation. “When there is a constant stream of games, shows, chats, and ads feeding directly into your brain, does the world make sense without it?”, M.T. Anderson has created a world that ours is not very far from. The thought of having something more complex than the internet directly fed to my brain terrifies me. Looking at us now, people who have modern technology feel helpless when separated from it. Having instantaneous gratification of knowledge and entertainment at your fingertips dulls some of your most basic instincts.
In the Feed, communication is very different, “Okay. Could we get a thingie, a reading on his limbic activity?”(69). That was Titus's doctor, and maybe if I was in his position I wouldn’t think anything of it, but I’d be a little concerned if my life was in his hands. Titus’s father, a successful businessman who has to travel to the moon for work, he sounds more illiterate than a middle-schooler. Not even taking in account what had just happened to his son, he was too occupied by the feed to care that his own kin could’ve been seriously harmed(55).
To be fair though they don’t use their voices, I mean why would they? They can just m-chat each other, able to send messages instantaneously through the Feed. When Titus looked at Violet upset at their first party together, he chatted her and , “Hey beautiful. What’s doing?” (83). For Titus and his friends to be completely disconnected from the Feed, I’m honestly surprised they didn’t react worse. However, they were at least put in a controlled environment where they were monitored, if they had happened to have their feed cut away from civilization. I can guarantee that most people would be completely incapable of surviving or finding help.
The Feed is a part of these people, and extension of their brain. Streaming shit into your head all day, even the songs, they’re absolute garbage, “I like you so bad, And you like me so bad. We are So bad..”(15), how deep. But how different our we? Especially our popular music, that doesn’t sound far from Justin Bieber. To top it off, the music is all playing through the Feed. When Violet and Titus went outside, it was a bunch of people bobbing their heads to nothing, like some uncomfortable silent rave(88). But hey, don’t worry if you don’t like the music you can just do drugs instantly on the web! Or what they like to call malfunctioning. Which from the party scene with Titus and his friends Link and Marty, it seems like it’s equivalent to heroin(87). At least in our time you have to go out and pay money to get high, when it’s sitting as a webpage in your brain it’s just a tad easier.
As technology becomes more advanced we start to lose our humanity, it becomes blurred between our actual thoughts and that which others have created that influence our everyday lives. And when the whole surface of the earth is destroyed and you have to live in giant glass domes, being transported by “Up Cars” in traveling tubes, then I’d probably get a little bored too(94). M. T. Anderson has made a scary hypothesis of what future generations will have to live through. Hell, I can see our planet being destroyed by global warming with the century. Even when it’s a well known fact that it’s destroying our atmosphere money is more important than how these decisions will affect us in the long run. Within our lifetime, the Feed is going to be more like a way of life as opposed to a fictional book.
Luke D. Prompt 4.
Works Cited
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.
The Future is Now
In
the novel there is a piece of technology that is implanted into the brains of
individuals called a Feed. The Feed plays an important role in this novel. The Feed
is the characters way of thinking, entertainment, shopping, and even
communicating. Essentially the Feed is in fact their way of life. As we continue to read this novel we start to
understand what it is and how it works. We also come to a conclusion that the
Feed is a necessity to the characters in the novel. While reading this and
coming to these conclusions I realized that we today aren’t as different from
the characters in the novel from the distant future. The feed is to the
characters what the internet is to us. The internet is a tool that we all use
today. Most of us rely on the internet for the answers to most of our problems.
Not only that but also for uses like entertainment, shopping, or communication,
the Feed and internet are so alike it’s scary. Everything the Feed is used for
in the novel is an exact reflection of for what the internet is used for in
today’s time.
We
may not have a feed that is attached to our brains today but most of us carry
around cell phones and laptop throughout our day that have access to the
internet. It’s not hard to get access to internet nowadays when there are
places like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts that offer free Wi-Fi. So, very much like the feed we walk around our
entire day and spend countless hours surfing through the internet whether it be
for entertainment uses which includes sites like YouTube or Netflix or
communicating on social media on apps like Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. Titus
does make a reference to the internet in chapter 10 when he says “I don’t know
when they first had feeds like maybe fifty or a hundred years ago. Before that,
they had to use their hands and their eyes. Computer were all outside the body.
They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried
your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe. He’s admitting here that
life without the feed would be pretty difficult for him. He couldn’t imagine a
life without the feed, just like most of us can’t imagine a life without the
internet.
The
Feeds are implanted into the characters brains at birth. So they live with
these things from the beginning of their life all the way till the end. We on
the other hand weren’t born with the internet imprinted inside our bodies but
we were born in an era where the internet imprinted itself on us. With that
being said our births happened at a time when the internet had still been relatively
young so we grew up to be influenced by the internet, which has pretty much
taken over all of our lives.
The
Feed has so much of an influence on these characters that it even changes the
way they communicate to each other. They no longer use their mouths to talk to
each other, they communicate straight off the Feed. This really reminds me of
people nowadays. No one really talks to anyone anymore, most forms of communication
mostly happen behind a screen through a cell phone. Even with communication
through a cell phone no one even actually talks on the phone anymore, they just
text one another just like the characters use M-chat each to communicate to
each other. The characters even abbreviate words because they are too lazy to
type them. Kind of like today when people use phrases like lol, smh, and lmao
or even worse how they don’t actually spell words out and write “u” instead of “you”
and “ur” instead of your or you’re. We may look at this novel and say were
never going to end up like the characters but what we have all failed to notice
is that we have already taken multiple steps closer to becoming just like them.
The internet is our Feed, we carry it everywhere we go and most of us can’t
live without it.
Ricardo,
Prompt 4
Anderson, M.T. Feed. Somerville: Candlewick
Press, 2002. Print
World Needs Update
I’ve begun to realize that our
society has been evolving in to a digital age. Also being in a digital age, we
have been manipulated by mass media. I
have chosen to address these issues because the novel feed can relate to them
well. Every character has a feed, which is directly into their brain. Having
internet connected to you at all times, you get very reliant on it. Now a days
if you don’t know something or don’t understand something, we look toward
Google for an immediate answer.
Each character was a teenager, unless you heard about their
parents. When they went to the moon, on their way there they were looking up
things to do using the Feed. A quote from M.T Anderson he says “And the feed
was pouring in on us now, all of it, all of the feed net, and we could feel all
of our favorites, and there were or files, and our m-chat lines. It came down
on us like frickin’ spring rains, and were dancing in it”(70). This quote means to
me that Titus compares the communication to his newly restored feed. In our
world today we have wifi and 4G. Our feed is compared to laptops and cell
phones. We use our hands to operate them.
Also our
internet would never be able to clear up our headaches. But we could look up if
we take a medication what side effects that medication can have. Having feed
and internet in our world comes to a point where you really don’t have to think
for yourself, when the answers can be right there when looked up.
While reading feed, at first having a lesion wasn’t cool, or
the trend to have. Once everyone stated getting a lesion, it was the new “in”
thing to have. I feel with how our world is today and being manipulated by mass
media if one person says something is cool or you must have it, you won’t fit
in with being popular. We all know having a lesion isn’t safe or healthy. When
you are on the moon everyone will start looking at it as a necklace or the new
style must have. Quendy was one of the first ones to get a lesion and also
thought is started to spread
If in the real world we could be able to have a feed, I feel
that people will still be themselves. For example, if you see a famous person
wearing a certain designer, many people would consider it a trend and everyone
would want one. It would be the same thing as the feed an if one person gets
it, everyone else wants it. Also in you wanted to fit in with the popular crowd
and couldn’t afford a certain style you may not feel accepted or have the
feeling of being yourself.
Once feed was hacked, it seemed to me each of them felt
lost, and didn’t really know how to act. Being in a hospital without being able
to ask the Feed questions about being hacked or a diagnosis to become fixed
probably was the worst part. Becoming addicted to the internet and not using
your own brain for thoughts can truly become a struggle. Internet and having a
Feed is the answer to everything. For each character it was interesting because
most of them were teenagers. You really didn’t hear of their parents having a
Feed to rely on. Also with our day an age, my generation is more likely to
figure out how to use internet or a Feed without a problem. Whereas my parent’s
generation, they would most likely have more of a struggle. Many of the teens
today would most likely agree with me that Facebook is old and we have moved
onto other social media. Meanwhile our parents are still stuck on Facebook and
didn’t get the memo
So with my comparison to the feed and today’s world I truly
don’t feel it being much different. We have become so used to just having
answers right away, as soon as we touch our cell phones. Manipulation via mass
media might just get worse and no one can find out who they really are,
especially if new trends start to come out just like the lesions in Feed,
everyone might want what’s new.
-Jordan
We interrupt your normally scheduled program...
Well here goes nothing right. So for this first blog post I decided to choose number 4, which is Text-to-world analysis. Anyway let's get to it. So reading this novel it reminds me a lot like the world we live in today. With all of the technology that we have at our fingertips, it is no wonder why older people say that people from our generation do not know how to communicate with one another. Feed is very relatable to the real world in the way in which technology alters the way we think, learn, and how we use social skills. For example, texting is a great thing to a certain extent. Yeah, it is easy for quick conversation because it is almost instantaneous, and in order to get in touch with people from a far distance away, but does the was in which we developed our own language in text messages make us dumb? Do we really have to abbreviate everything we type? In a way I agree with the people who say that it is being lazy. For instance, in the feed the characters use m-chat in order to communicate with each other by their minds. They even abbreviate their words when m-chatting. Now that is being lazy. Technology has gotten so far in this novel that it has created a whole other form of communicating, a way in which there really would not have to be any face to face connection. Sooner rather than later we might have to face this as well, where we will be using our minds for communication. The feed is just like our internet, and how it for certain alters the way we think. Why would people ever try to learn and think for themselves when you have all the information you need in the world right at the tap of a button, or in the feeds case right at a thought in the mind. Such as in Feed Violet says "You put the 'supper' back in 'suppuration'" (Anderson 23). After violet said this everyone looked up what suppuration had meant on the feed instead of using their social ability to ask Violet who was right in front of them. This kills social skills just like it does today when people text, or whatever people do on their phones now a days to talk to each other, in the same room/building instead of actually speaking to them. I can certainly say that I would be completely terrified if we ever had m-chat as a form of communication. Let us get on to another topic. Like how the banners that are used on the feed are just like how ads are on our internet today. How the things they think of and what we type shape the way the ads approach us, how they learn from what we like just because of what we search on google, and what the think of on the feed. It is almost a scary feeling. A being controlled sort of feeling. This brings me to page 43 in the very short chapter awake where Titus was disconnected from feed net and was lost and scared. The feed consumes every aspect of their lives to the point in which they do not even know where they are. This reminds me of people now. If somethings where they can't access the internet, for example if the power goes out, people have no idea what to do. We feel so disconnected to the outside world when we don't have access to see what other people are doing, we get bored, scared, and are lost because we are so controlled and are way to invested. It truly makes me wonder why us as humans are so invested in what other people are doing at all times. In the feed this remains a constant as well. They always no what every one is doing because of the feed. The feed truly controls what they think, say, want, and learn. Just like our internet, and our government. We are adapting our minds to conform to how the internet works, and we make it apart of our daily lives, and routines. Every thing we do is being altered or fitted to the internet and shapes how we think, learn, and how we use our social skill. We way not be in the space age, but we might be closer to the Feed than we think.
-Dylan
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2002. Print.
-Dylan
Works Cited
Anderson, M. T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press, 2002. Print.
Adriana or Titus?
For this blog post I will be talking about the text-to-self
analysis view. I feel that this novel goes beyond my personal experience. It
pertains to anybody that is living in this day of age. This novel speaks to my
personal experience because I am basically living in the Feed as well. Maybe
not as technological, but still living in the same concept. The Feed has made
it so that these characters barely even speak with their mouths to each other!
That is ridiculous. They speak through there chat on the Feed most of the time.
Which is what people tend to do now. It seems that people have forgotten how to
communicate without being buried into their phones.
I believe a character I relate myself the most with is
Titus. I thought this the first time when we read the novel. He was complaining
about how he did not want to do something, but ended up doing it anyway just to
do it and not be alone and bored. Sometimes, while I am here at college I find
myself doing stuff that I do not really want to do. Such as going out to
certain parties, or hanging out with a certain group of friends. But I do it
anyway just so that I am not bored or alone sometimes. Just because I relate to
him does not mean I am the same is him. Titus has the Feed and I do not.
Although, I do have an iPhone and that is similar. It is not the feed however.
I am able to think for myself even though sometimes I “go with the flow”
pertaining to my friends and the plans I have. But, I do not need to look up
everything on Google or whatever search engine. I am not saying I am a genius
either, because I am far from that. I just do not depend on the internet as
much as he does. I think Titus is somewhat weird.
The issues that are in this novel align with the things that
surround me in my life for sure. Mainly pertaining to how the internet is so
big now. When I was younger, there were cellphones. Nothing compared to what we
have now though. Before the only thing you could really do is call and text
message, take a picture IF you had a camera phone. Before we were able to live
our lives with cellphones, but we did not depend on cellphones. Now we are
unable to even leave our houses without our cellular device. I am not sure if
it is even to stay in contact with one another or if it is for other purposes.
Other purposes being social media or just apps that come with the phone or apps
that you download onto the phone. Phones do way more than just text and call
now. Like I just said, sometimes I feel like we do not even use it to stay in
contact with each other anymore.
I do not think that this new found technology has helped me
to overcome anything in my life. I feel like it is causing me to backtrack. I
feel that it is starting to impact me in a negative ways. Being that it is
beginning to diminish my vocabulary for example. If I do not know a word? I
look it up and that is it. It is right there in front of me. It is not like I
need to think about it.2
If I were Titus, I am not sure I would have traveled to the
moon with my friends if I did not feel like it. But at the same time, I
probably would have. If I am on spring break and I am bored, not doing anything
I would most likely say yes to anything being that I would want to do anything
beside being in the house or at work. But the moon? That is a big step. That
requires a lot of planning and a lot of money most likely. If I worked during
spring break I would not even accumulate the amount of money, I would probably
spend on a trip.
-Adriana B.
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