Feed by M.t. Anderson: The Effects of Technologies on Society

Feed by M.T. Anderson is a novel about tennagers living a future version of America. In this future society the majority of the population depends on “the feed,” a network that is implanted into their heads that is necessary to life for them. The feed provides them with the ability to look up any information, use endless hours of entertainment, communicate electronically, and acquire limitless advertisements. The Feed highly affects the culture of this prospective society because it is causing people to have poor education, its affecting their communication and affecting their emotions.

The education that the children receive in this future society is formed on their feeds. The children learn how to be a good consumer, how to get a job, how to use the feed, and how to get good bargains. On page 109 Titus says “Back then, it was meg null, because they didn't learn anything useful.” When Titus says this it shows that they aren't learning about history, science and math anymore, they are learning how to live their lives through their feeds. Violet is living and learning a different way, she is referred to as smart because she reads about events that are happening and how people are destroying the earth. Titus then goes on to tell her instead of being depressed reading about it to go out and do something about it.

The main source of communication in this society is through their feeds. People are able to talk through their Feeds and chose who can be let into their conversations. This decreases their time of communication, but does not allow them to build stronger relationships. This is shown through Titus and Violet's relationship because Violet likes more true feelings, while Titus is more appearance related and described as “pretty dead”. Violet says “Talk to me, in the air” to Titus. When she says this Violet is asking Titus to have a real conversation with her and not communicated through their feeds after they were too angry to talk out loud, which appears as an uncommon action for Titus. While Titus is with his friends, a few of his friends and his feeds are hacked. This results in them not being able to use for a period of time, they realize how much they rely on their feeds for communication and how unusual it is for to talk out loud.

The people in this future society come across as emotionless because of how dependent they are on their Feeds. Everyone depends on their feeds for happiness, when M.T. Anderson is describing the society she says that nobody knows how to make themselves happy. Titus and his friends live their lives buying new expensive products and always going to new places and experiencing new things, yet they always seem to be so bored. On page 1 Titus says “Im null too unit, but I mean we were all pretty null, because for the last like hour we’d been playing with three uninsulated wires that were coming out of the wall. We were trying to ride shocks off of them.” At the being of their spring break they had all been so bored that they were touching live wire coming out of the wall trying to get shocked. When they all have access to limitless actions through their feed yet they are so bored that they are shocking themselves for entertainment shows that they don't get much satisfaction from doing anything. Titus even shows no emotion to his own family, when in a room together Titus, his mom, dad, and brother all show no reaction to each other, while a typical family would be talking and bonding. For Titus’ family they are all watching their own feedcasts in silence and chatting with their friends through the feed.

The feed has changed the culture of this society leading to poor education, affecting communication, and affecting people's emotions. The people living in this futuristic society's way of life is being affected by their feeds through everyday actions. Things that people in today's world think of being a normal thing is highly changed and affected by these people living through their feeds.