Feed A

I remember talking briefly to Jacara about the book and she said that the allegory of the book is nothing like the world today. She said that we do not sound as stupid as the book makes us seem. But I can see M.T. Anderson's point of view. When I was reading the book, I noticed that the characters kept saying "like" and used a lot of slang. I got annoyed by the continuous use of the word "like" and it did make them sound stupid. Jacara and I agreed that m-chatting is similar to instant messaging and texting. <-- texting is not even a word in the dictionary.

We rely too much on technology to help us think. In the end of the book, Titus asks Violet's dad numerously to just tell him what "eloi" is. Similar to us, we want information immediately and just ask for the knowledge, the answer, without actually understanding the answer or learning the knowledge. We take the knowledge and regurgitate it (Snyder). When we have questions, we rely on Google to give us the answers when we type keywords into the search box.

I liked how Anderson used the feed in the brain as an allegory to our interaction with digital technology. It is as if communication devices are attached to us and when we need to use them, it is convenient. Titus and his friends use m-chat while we use instant messengers and texts. I also remember when Violet was able to track Titus's feed and Titus was able to watch Violet's feed efficiency. This is like facebook, myspace and/or twitter; we check people's facebook and myspace pages to see what they are up to and we follow people on twitter to stalk them.

[edits]
In the book, trees were cut down to make air factories because air factories were efficient in making air. Everything in the world is about efficiency; the world enters the industrial era because people industrialization increases efficiency in making profit. Even in the digital world, emails are used because they are faster at sending messages than postage mails. Facebook, twitter, and myspace are efficient because they allow you to stalk more people in less time. Texts are created to send messages when you cannot make phone calls in meetings or when you want too be sneaky in class.

The lesions can be seen as plastic surgeries in this world. Quendy and Calista went overboard with the lesions and people in this world go too far with plastic surgeries. The characters in the book got lesions for this one guy who was not even worth it. Both, the characters in the book and people in the world, get plastic surgery to just get attention.

Violet's dad got Violet a feed because everyone else had it. This reminds me of the woman I interviewed in the streets; she said that she was going to get her son a laptop because everyone else had one. People are living under the influence and always want the new stuff. In the book, the characters are notified of the new stuff through their feeds. I think this shows the obsession and bad habits we have in the consumption of new products. The same woman also said that she was going to get her son a cell phone because they needed to get into contact. Cell phones are great digital devices to make sure your family is safe but people get addicted with the texts.