This post is due by Tuesday, January 28 @ midnight for full credit.
Email late posts to rob.williamsATmadriver.com for partial credit.
1. Read FEED, books 3 and 4.
2. Describe FIVE specific media-related themes in FEED, using 3 sentences for each theme. Be sure to include a textual reference and page # as part of EACH description. (What does MT Anderson, the book's author, want us to think about?)
The media-related theme of perception versus reality appears throughout the novel FEED. Titus and his friends are under the impression that they have control over their own lives, but they don’t. The technological device in their head dictates the trends they follow, the advertisements they see, and the information they receive. When Violet’s feed malfunctions at the party she screams out, “look at us! You don’t have the feed! You are feed!” She’s the only one who seems to recognize the reality: the feed has taken over the people it is implanted in (202).
ReplyDeleteThe cost of technology and progress is something one should consider while reading FEED. Having a feed has allowed people to access information at a moment’s notice and with great ease, however this form of technology comes at a cost very few seem to consider. When Violet’s feed malfunctions and she is laying in her deathbed, her father tells Titus, “We Americans… are interested only in the consumption of our products. We have no interest in… what happens to them once we discard them, once we throw them away” (290). In this case, Violet has to be the one that’s discarded after being tainted by a piece of technology that was meant to make life easier, not harder.
An information imbalance is apparent in the world of FEED, where the government and corporations tailor the news Americans receive through the feed with a US-positive spin, ensuring that the opposing side is always cast in a bad light, even if they aren’t the villains. For example, part of the news the people heard from the government included, “it is not the will of the American people… to believe the allegations that were made by these corporate ‘watch’ organizations…” (85). Violet is always looking to get a perspective not molded by the feed and she often brings up things to Titus, like the industrial disaster “the Global Alliance is blaming [on] the U.S.” (241).
Media as propaganda is a vital message that is made obvious in FEED. One of the most distinctive aspects of the novel is the constant stream of advertisements that flow through the feed, ranging from deals on clothes to “20 Hot Sex Tips for Girls” (189). It may seem harmless and part of everyday life for the people in that world, but the media is molding their opinions and choices through the ads they are seeing. In effect, people are slowly losing a sense of self, for they’re blindly following and believing what the feed puts in front of them, without a counteracting thought of their own.
A final media-related theme is monopolies shaping the world of FEED. Corporations not only own businesses, but they’ve also stuck in their hands in the education system, ensuring the creation of more pro-feed, consumers in future generations. It’s so normal to Titus and the people around him though, that they don’t question it. Titus goes as far as saying, “School™ is not so bad now, not like back when… the schools were run by the government, which sounds completely like, Nazi, to have the government running the schools?” (109). Monopolies are all they know of.
1. “The feed is tied in to everything. Your body control, your emotions, your memory. Everything” (p.170).
ReplyDeleteTechnology has literally become a part of us. We are so attached to our devices that they are an extension of ourselves, like an extra limb. If we lose our phones or forget them at home, we are lost and cannot function as we normally do.
2. “’They’re not ‘cuts,’’” she said, smiling like he was an idiot. ‘First if all, it’s the big spit. And second, for your info, it’s called ‘birching,’ and they’re lenticels” (p. 192).
The media has such a powerful impact on us that we are willing to mutilate our bodies to conform to what we are told is “cool.” Once the actors from Oh? Wow! Thing! start getting lesions, everyone wants one, much like the culture of today. If a celebrity gets rhinoplasty, or purple hair extensions, suddenly everyone wants them.
3. “I sat down at the table, and then walked around. She was bombarding me. Finally, I got a message that she’d stopped….I deleted everything she had sent me” (p. 254).
It is so easy to ignore messages or questions from others when asked through technology. They don’t always know if or when you opened a message, or whether you deleted it on sight. This ambiguity allows us to avoid unsavory situations without hurting the feelings of our friends, blaming technology for its own malfunctions.
4. “…I was at a job interview. I was an excellent candidate. Two men were interviewing me. Talking about this and that. Then they were silent, just looking at me…I realized they had chatted me, and that I had not responded…I did not get the job” (p. 288).
Access to and proficiency in using technology is essential to landing a job in the current economy. If one has limited knowledge of certain programming, or no experience with it, they are likely to be passed over for a job that they are otherwise fully qualified for. Additionally, this scene portrays a prejudice among employers who are unwilling to hire those who are unlike everybody else.
5. “I ordered pair after pair. I ordered them all in the same color. They were slate. I was ordering them as quickly as I could” (p.593).
Retail therapy is becoming increasingly more common among younger generations, who are specifically targeted and told that material goods will make them happy. Even at the most abhorrent times we are being spoon-fed products, like after Violet suffers severe health problems and Nina tries to sell her deodorant (p.246). Titus copes with his feeling about Violet by mindlessly purchasing products, just to have something methodical and safe to think about.
Violet’s personal shopper Nina follows her everywhere and takes note of everything that she browses, buys, and does not buy. This is very reminiscent of online shopping today and how after simply browsing on a website looking at certain items, those same items will pop up on the side advertisements of another site as a result of online tracking. “Look, she said, changing the whole subject. Look at everything we looked at today. It’s trying to work for me. This perky voice on her feed said, Hi! I’m Nina, your personal FeedTech shopping assistant!” (Anderson, 106).
ReplyDeleteThe quote, “We Americans, he said, are interested only in the consumption of our products. We have no interest in how they were produced, or what happens to them- he pointed at his daughter- what happens to them once we discard them, once we throw them away” (Anderson, 290) is extremely relevant to our consumer culture and comments on the disposable nature of our consumption. This quote, as well as Titus explaining later on how he can feel the pants he ordered being distributed, transported, etc, remind me of the video “The Story of Stuff” and how our world must stop the way we consume and then dispose.
Titus himself is very susceptible to the consumer culture and finds himself giving in to having his parents purchase a car not for his needs, but for what his friends would like. Titus is so wrapped up in his feed that he can’t even give Violet enough attention as she dies. Titus explains how, “it turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don’t know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn’t think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. 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” (Anderson, 279). This quote explains how our technological culture is moving so fast that our physical bodies and minds cannot keep pace with it unless we devote all our energy to it.
Violet’s family originally did not want her to have a feed, and her mother and father did not have them. However, Violet’s father explains how they made the decision to get her a feed since he realized that Violet would be left out of conversations by others and not have the same advantages as other children in school. This is a parallel between how our society operates with smartphones and the latest gadgets, because as a teenager if you don’t have the newest version of some type of technology, you are automatically behind and risk “not being cool”. “It was thus that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world” (Anderson, 288).
5. In Violet’s case, she is trying to go against the feed or “scramble it” by messing with her demographic and what her personal assistant will think she wants. Titus’ friends automatically think Violet is “weird” because she is going against the feed. In today’s society, if someone is unsupportive of certain media techniques like photo retouching or appreciates a one-on-one conversation over texting, there will be some backlash since our 21st century world places technology higher than everything else. “ Everything we do gets thrown into a big calculation. Like they’re watching us right now. They can tell where you’re looking. They want to know what you want” (Anderson, 97).
M.T. Anderson incorporates many media specific themes in Feed. Media’s influence on the development and apparent decline of the English language surfaces in the novel. The language used by Titus and his friends is strongly influenced by the technology found in society. “M-chatting” is a frequent practice done by everyone with the feed. M-chatting is communication without actual communication. The ability to really have a discussion with a human-being collapses under the constant exposure to media and marketing. Anderson highlights this theme when Titus’ father struggles to have a conversation with his son off the feed, “Yeah, I forgot. No m-chat. Just talking.” (55) Most characters in the novel can’t verbalize their feelings; language comes second to the Feed.
ReplyDeleteThe educational system of America versus corporations is another media specific thread throughout the novel. Schools are owned by businesses now and the traditional curriculum is replaced by “how to work technology and how to find bargains and what’s the best way to get a job and how to decorate our bedroom.”
(110) Teens are not very smart, schools are only teaching how to buy things and the feed allows them to access information at any time. There is a breakdown of intelligence in the American people.
There is a “big brother” phenomenon in Feed. Everything you’re looking at or purchasing is constantly being monitored by the Feed. Titus’ dreams are nudged by the police, “I could feel that someone was nudging my feed. They were nudging it, like with their cheek or nose.” (92) It’s a scary concept that through media use any action can be surveyed by an omnipotent power. The Feed allows corporations to make a profile of the consumer; they begin to know the buyer better than they know themself.
The Feed depicts a culture obsessed with consumption. In the twenty-first century, indications of this situation are becoming more and more impending. Even now, commercials and ads online express how essential it is to buy their product. Online shopping and big sales reveal a country moving more towards consumption rather than production. Anderson points out this theme all through the novel. After his fight with Violet, ads prey on Titus’s emotions offering savings at “Weatherbee & Crotch’s Annual Blowout Summer Fashion Sale!” (274) Titus promptly purchases a jersey. There is never a rest between shopping and everyday life. The characters are always exposed to businesses and the products they sell.
Media in Feed affects the American government and its relationship with the American people and the outside world. Anderson portrays the government as not capable of running a country. An intercepted m-chat of the president disclosed that he called the prime-minister of the Global Alliance a “big shithead,” (119) they instead try to explain that the President meant to say the Prime Minister’s head was fertile with ideas. In today’s world the way our government operates has changed drastically due to the media. Politicians must always be weary of what they say or do and yet in Feed everything is cast as positive, nobody knows the terrible things happening throughout the world. At the conclusion of the novel, America seems to be in disarray.
1. "I mean, they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you're supposedly like. They try and figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (p. 97)
ReplyDeleteMarketing is a huge piece of the media. During different types of TV shows and on different websites they market different things to the stereotypical demographic that use watch a certain TV show or go on a certain website. Stereotyping and marketing to specific demographics are a large part of the media.
2. "The teacher was a hologram that day. There had been some funding cuts. The school band was gone, and so were the alive teachers." (p. 234)
This is the theme of mass communication, everyone learns the same thing and the same way, and if you do not learn that specific way then you are out of luck. Titus is an ‘unconventional learner’ so he struggles in school. The generalization of the way people process information lumps us together and forces us to become more alike.
3. "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool but cool, but cool was always flying ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it." (p. 279)
Media causes what to be cool to change constantly. For example, when there is a new style it only lasts so long because before you know it someone else in the media is wearing something ‘cooler’. The media makes you want the next best thing quicker and you expect the media to promote something cooler as soon as the new cool thing comes out… cool.
4. “…and the stars of the Oh? Wow! Thing! Had got lesions, so lesions were hip now, real hip and mine looked like a million dollars” (p. 147)
The media make TV show characters and celebrities as some sort of God like human. You want to be as much like them as possible and if they deem something cool or uncool you hold that as true. In FEED they say that body disfiguration is not something to be ashamed of but proud of and then all of a sudden people love their lesions.
5. “What am I, without the feed? It’s all from the feed credits. My idea of real life. You know?” (p. 217)
The media lets us know where people are, what people are doing at all times, and the media tells us what is “socially acceptable”. The fear of being an outcast and being not the norm makes people act not like themselves in certain situations. You do not know who you really because you conform to the norm that the media has declared as “normal behavior” or fear of being a social outcast.
1.) Done
ReplyDelete2.) Emotional transfer was seen on page (87) when Titus laughed at the sexy assassin but Violet had no reaction. This made Titus feel uncomfortable because the media had given them two different emotions. “I was feeling strange sitting next to Violet, and she wasn’t laughing.” (87) On page (103) M.T. Anderson uses odd language that throws the reader off a bit. There are a few sentences that take a few times to read to make sure we get the full message. For example, “What’s doing with your parents” or “Bebrekker & Karl.” (103) These are both not proper English and I think Anderson did this to keep the book hip. It doesn’t quite follow the rules that most novels do but this book breaks the rules so it works. When Titus and Violet go to J.P. Barnigan’s Family Extravaganza he tells us that they go mozzarella sticks, steak and a Caesar salad. Also, Titus was very excited that they got free refills on pop. “There were free refills on drinks.” The truth is when you buy one pop all the rest don’t cost the business any money. I placed this example under “reality” construction/ trade offs. On pages (26) and (27) there are numerous examples of value messages. For example, “The rumble spot: an ocean of chaos in the Sea of Tranquility.” There are about six more of random blurbs of words that in reality don’t make much sense. We know after talking about this in class that their Feeds are being hacked. It was the begging to the man with the rod. I think Anderson put this in here because this was closest way to make us feel like we had the Feed. It is pretty difficult to show Feed being hacked but I think this was very creatively done and effective. One example of ownership in Feed would be the TM after school. In the book the corporation own the schools when in reality that would be really twisted. They are allowed to trade mark the word “school.” With that being said these corporations pretty much run the world because they decide what the kids learn. “I kind of protested it in schooltm.” (65)
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ReplyDelete1. Titus goes to Violet's house for the first time. “The place was a mess. Everything had words on it. There were papers with words on them and books, and even posters on the wall had words. Her father looked like a crank.” (P. 135) This is how things used to be, when there were actually printed words on paper. In the 'old' days the printed word was a major form of media: Books, Newspapers, and Magazines. Violet's father was trying to keep the old ways alive, and Titus sees him as being kind of weird.
ReplyDelete2. ”If you talked about the great taste of Cola to your friends like a thousand times you got a free six pack of it, so we decided to take them for some meg ride by getting them all together and being like Coke, Coke, Coke, Coke… It was a chance to rip off the corporations, which we all thought was a funny idea” (p.158) In FEED, one way the corporations would get people really focused on their product is to have contests and give away free things. This way the consumers were coming up with ideas for marketing a product and the company was getting the advertising for free. Of course everyone would really get focused on that product and want even more of it.
3. The FEED infiltrates their lives to the extent of sneaking into their dreams but they don't even know it's real news. Both Titus and Violet think they have dreamed about riots in another part of the world. They go to a party and see all their friends wearing clothes that are torn up and look like they've been hurt. But Loga explains, “It’s Riot Gear. It’s retro. It’s beat up to look like one of the big twentieth-century riots. It’s been big since earlier this week. (p.159)” The corporations who created this kind of fashion are using it to make riots seem trivial, only an inspiration for clothes. Everyone is wearing the clothing and doesn't take it seriously that people were really hurt and killed in riots, which is actually happening in another part of the world right then. The FEED is being used to change how people react to reality, in this case, violence and tragedy has been turned into a fashion statement. The kids don't even know what the 'fashion collection' names, like Kent State and Watts, refer to.
4. In FEED people are influenced by the media for everything, including how they want their children to look. Del Glacey Murdoch was an actor who Titus's parents had seen in many films. “We thought he was like the most beautiful man we’d ever seen in our lives (p.116)” They wanted their child to look like this actor so they went to the conceptionarium and told the geneticists what they wanted so they could have their child genetically engineered based on the looks of a “feedcast” actor.
5.
School TM is how kids are educated in FEED. 'Education' has been taken over by big business instead of the government. Titus thinks this is good and he doesn't get it at all. He thinks it's good that the corporations run the school 'because it teaches us how the world can be used, like mainly how to use our feeds....now we do stuff in classes about how to work technology and how to find bargains and what's the best way to get a job and how to decorate our bedroom.' (p. 110) The corporations are 'teaching' kids how to be consumers, and they don't have a clue about what's really going on in the world. Except Violet, who does have a clue. 'When you have the feed all your life, you're brought up not to think about things....Because of the feed, we're raising a nation of idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots.' (p.113)
(1) “I don’t know how I spent two hours, it was so awful and boring. I thought about anything else that I could. You low? Said a banner. Not for long -- not when you find out the savings you can enjoy at Weatherbee & Crotch’s Annual Blowout Summer Fashions Sale! It was a little embarrassing, but I did order a jersey” (274)
ReplyDeleteAdvertising is a constant theme in feed that presents itself all the time. The characters are overwhelmed with ads through their feed, which drowns their minds with sounds and images of popular products. This can be related to modern society and the culture we live in today. They say the average person sees 3,000 advertisement messages a day. What have companies decided to do about it? Flood the media with more advertisements. Through this theme, Anderson is showing us that this is the path we are heading down.
(2) “I looked around me. Everyone was nodding their heads to music, or had their eyes just blank with the feedcast. It was just a party. Nothing but a party” (83).
I think the most obvious theme in feed is feed v. reality. It appears that the feed is no longer a medium used to make people “smarter” but has rather become one source with a biased opinion. The reliance of this one source is completely unhealthy and ignorant because not only are the people receiving one-sided news, but the news is coming from the people that control the world: the corporations. People have grown so attached to their feeds that they have lost most of their touch with reality; the feed is their reality.
(3) “…we shouldn’t think that there are any truth to the rumors that the lesions are the result of any activity of American industry. Of course they are not the result of anything American industry has done. The people of the United States know, as I know, that that is just plain hooey. We need to remember…Okay, we need to remember that America is the national of freedom, and that freedom, my friends, freedom does not lesions make” (85).
Another recurring theme is that of corporations and their dominance over mankind. It appears that corporations now have complete control over the schools, which now teach “useful” classes on how to work with the feed. This also implies that the corporations have now taken over the government, similar to the government of today. Although it may not be as direct as the control in feed, Anderson implies that the corrupt government in the United States today will lead us down a similar path.
(4) “’We enter a time of calamity! We enter a time of calamity’ The man reached out and, with a metal handle, touched me on the neck. Suddenly I could feel myself broadcasting” (38)
Old media v. new media has also come up several times throughout feed. One particular instance of this is when the old man hack’s Violet’s feed with the rod, which symbolizes an antenna (broadcasting). Therefore, old media, which is represented by broadcasting, has been overthrown by the new media, which is represented by digitalization.
(5) “…the stars of the Oh? Wow! Thing! Had started to get lesions, so now people were thinking better about lesions, and lesions even looked kind of cool” (96).
Perhaps the most relevant of all, especially to us teenage readers, is that of fitting in. We always want to get the next iPhone upgrade or the next gen gaming device that will make us fit in better with our friends. In reality, the media is making it appear that if we don’t have these upgrades or devices, we can’t fit in with the rest of society. Who wants to be left alone?? So with everyone thinking the same thing, everyone gets the next “cool” thing. The same is evident in feed, with the obvious case of the feed, but also with lesions. The most disgusting, horrific looking things were popularized by the media, which led to people actually trying to get them!
In today’s media society, news corporations try to market their news as unbiased and partial. However many companies, today, and in FEED, fail to do this. The News that is broadcasted through the feed is always pro USA, as exemplified in a presidential address, “we need to remember that America is the nation of freedom, and that freedom, my friends, freedom does not lesions make” (85).
ReplyDeleteAnderson also brings convergence into the book and characters lives. They constantly have access to different types of media on the same platform. Advertisements flash on the feed as Violet tries to explain on m-chat to Titus, “Look at everything I got from the feed. It’s going crazy with everything we looked at today” (106).
The media streamed on the FEED is all marketed towards getting the consumer to do what the company wants them to. They make them believe that they need this, or they need to look this certain way. Loga, Quendy, and Calista are a product of this, “ It’s Riot Gear. It’s retro. It’s beat up to look like one of the big twentieth-century riots. It’s been big since earlier this week” (159).
In FEED, the media portrays industrialism and consumerism as a necessary way of life. They belittle nature and the environment until people no longer believe they matter. Titus’ father explains his idea in an argument against Violet, saying “Yeah. Sure. Do you know how insufficient trees are, next to an air factory?” (125).
The media culture in FEED creates an image of entitlement. They say that “We have only to stretch out our hand and desire, and what we wish for settles like a kerchief in our palm” (149). Corporations want citizens to think that they don’t have to work for things that they want, they just have to utilize the FEED and get it within the blink of an eye.
1. “Then I'd go home and sit on my bed and watch the FEED, and everything seemed normal” (p.77). I found this quote interesting in that even this seems to happen to me. When I go on social networks, I get to learn what makes my friends laugh or what famous athlete's eat to gain power. I sometimes get lost in the NHL's twitter feed then end up looking on a YouTube channel for a funny comedian. You can get lost in media, and relating to this quote life can seem better when it has nothing to do with you.
ReplyDelete2."I mean, they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you're supposedly like. They try and figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (p. 97). This insanity with ads has taken over their FEEDs and is present everywhere. In the now you realize this too, when Hulu commercials ask you "is this ad relevant to you?" The FEED on the other hand is you so it knows it's ads will catch your attention.
3. "Look at everything I got from the feed. Its going crazy with everything we looked at today. Its trying to work for me” (p.106). This part of the book shows a growing dependency on technology in which the FEED is becoming so sophisticated, it can think for itself. I found that the part about it "trying to work for me" to be disturbing only because it reminds me of the Terminator and that robots will eventually take over.
4.“The next day, I followed my feeds directions to her house” (p134). This quote may or may not be associated with media, but it is a GPS which is a useful type of technology. This theme could be that it shows where your friends live and also you always know where they are. The FEED shows where you are (similar to a GPS) and can post it on a media site, so I guess it should be associated with media.
5. “…I was at a job interview. I was an excellent candidate. Two men were interviewing me. Talking about this and that. Then they were silent, just looking at me…I realized they had chatted me, and that I had not responded…I did not get the job” (p. 288). The impact that this had on this job interview is shocking. It sounds similar to a company finding a horrible thing on your Facebook account. This part of the book shocked me which is why I chose it, the FEED has so much of an influence on this society it is disgusting.
Once you have feed, you cannot get rid of it. When Violet was sick, Titus asked if they could turn off her feed and she said that they shut off some of the functions but “The feed was still on. It’s part of the brain” (171). Since the feed is part of the brain, the brain is affected when the feed is deteriorating which disturbs the mind and body of the person.
ReplyDelete(She hadn’t had much of the stuff you see on the feed when she was younger. A lot of it was too expensive…” (107)
One of the reasons Violet's feedware is deteriorating is because she did not have the best quality of feed implanted into her brain because her dad couldn’t afford an expensive feed. The amount you pay for feed is based off of the quality of the feed; the better the feed, the more expensive. This is similar to the type of internet people have now, you can pay more money to get faster internet.
A media related theme in the book Feed is the ability to hack into a system. “They said that they had identified him, and that he was a hacker…” (46). In Feed, someone was able to hack into the feedware that was implanted in the majority of people’s brains. By doing so, the hacker caused the feed to go away for a certain amount of time.
“Our feeds tried to help, as we were walking around, we were getting all the prices of things…” (31).
Advertising is a media theme that is seen throughout the book Feed. Advertising is a major theme because the feed automatically shows you ads that are based on your personality. Since you cannot escape from the feed, advertisements are enforced upon you.
“Shoppers walked around us on the concourses, their mouths moving, talking to people who weren’t there” (108).
Media has affected our ability to engage with people verbally. This is shown in the book Feed many times throughout the book. One example is when Titus’s feed is hacked and he feels awkward sitting in the hospital with Violet because they do not have the feed to communicate through. After Titus experienced this, he was able to become more and more comfortable with confrontation, particularly with Violet. However, this is not the case for everyone. When Titus and Violet were at the mall, they noticed people were not communicating with one another at the mall but instead were communicating through the feed with people who were not there.
1. I think the overarching media theme and main concept in ‘Feed’ is how everything is connected in the world of ‘Feed’. Everyone, everything, and all that goes on in the world is connected. The Feed not only lives inside a host mind and is able to broadcast a person’s thoughts without the touch of a button, but the “personalized version” of someone’s own Feed inside their own head is much more specialized, and in a way, scarier. The Feed reads you, adapts to you, and everyone and everything else around you. All other media themes in ‘Feed’ are secondary to the ‘Feed’ ruling all. The Feed resembles evolution in the way it adapts to humanity and it is the dominant technology in this dystopian future society. “The Feed is tied in to everything.” (Page 170)
ReplyDelete2. Then, one of the subsets of total control of from the Feed is total control from Big Brother. It is clear that the Feed is monitored, and therefore everyone on the Feed and all that they say is available to the rest of the world, and it is implied that someone or something (i.e. an organization or a corporation) is stalking all of this information (and therefore knows everything). An example of this is on page 97 of ‘Feed’, where Violet is making Titus aware of the fact that they are obviously being watched: “Like they’re watching us right now. They can tell where you’re looking. They want to know what you want.” It is so obvious because their Feeds show personalized information, which has adapted to their own different tastes and personalities.
3. Another level of media connection in ‘Feed’ is obviously what the Feed itself does and shows. The advertisements, games, chats, and other information accessed on the Feed are a huge part of the book. While the Feed is not technically a character (although it resembles its own character in some aspects), it more frequently than not has control over what’s going on in the plot and what the characters do and how they react. For example, SchoolTM, where Titus clearly knows and talks about how the corporations in ‘Feed’ own the schools and how all they teach is related to the Feed: “…because it teaches us how the world can be used, like mainly how to use our Feeds.” (Page 109-110)
4. Another media theme in ‘Feed’ related to the people of ‘Feed’ and how they interact with the Feed. The lesions and the fact that the Feed is literally inside a person’s head simply illustrates how far people in this society are willing to go for their technology and how that technology has taken over their lives. “…so now people were thinking better about lesions, and lesions even looked kind of cool” (Page 96).
5. Because of the type of society that Titus and his friends live in, there is also a clear theme of things being (or being able to become) outdated. This media theme is important because it tells us a lot about the ‘Feed’ culture and society, and generally sets a pace for the technology in their era. For example, writing, body language, and talking are all “outdated” forms of communication now because the media and the Feed has replaced them. The concept of outdated in ‘Feed’ is similar to “extinct”, because the characters in the world of ‘Feed’ are unable to ever go back to the way things once were. “Computers 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.” (Page 47)
Meg brag posts, Units!
ReplyDeleteMissing voices:
Maddy
Aaron
Jane
Fight the FEED!
Dr. W
“We chatted all the time on the feeds and shared music and shit.” (Page 75) This has to do with media because it reminds me of how everyone spends so much time on their laptops. People are either on Facebook chatting with their Facebook friends or they are listening to and sharing music. I’m guilty of this too, because I know when I come back to my room and want to relax, I usually just go on my laptop.
ReplyDelete“When she wasn’t around in the afternoons, he sat in his closet watching Top Quark, with it broadcasting all over the place, so I watched it, too, because there was nothing else to do but watch Top Quark and eat Chipwiches.” (Page 76) This reminds me a lot of how people are with television these days. I know a lot of people who will just watch a show because there is nothing else to watch on TV. So, to a lot of people, watching something that is “subpar” is better than watching nothing at all.
“Stuff always starts with people who are cool and in college, and then works down, until when the six-year-olds get it, it’s like, who cares?” (Page 77) This quote has to do with how the media advertises certain things to be “popular” and “in” during certain times and then everyone will go out and buy it. For a while, it’s “cool” because everyone has it. But, when the younger kids start to get it, too, and it’s been around for a long while, it starts to become uncool.
“I looked around me. Everyone was nodding their heads to music, or had their eyes just blank with the feedcast. It was just a party. Nothing but a party.” (Page 83) This reminds me of how everyone these days is always using some kind of technology every second of the day. If you are sitting at lunch or waiting in line for coffee, people are always on their phones. This definitely has to do with the reason why peoples’ social skills have decreased over the years. People are scared to talk in person now because they are so used to talking over their phone or laptop.
When the feed says “. . . this month’s 20 Hot Sex Tips for Girls.” (Page 189) If you look at almost any women’s magazine, you’ll see something along the lines of that quote. As ridiculous as it sounds to some people, their “tips” are obviously working because people continue to buy the magazines. This shows the type of society that we live in and how it’s changed over the decades.
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