The Influence of the Feed

The Influence of the Feed In M.T. Andersons Feed, Titus and his friends are young people who are growing up with the feed, a chip implanted in his brain which is basically an evolved version of the internet. When he and his friends go to the moon, they meet a girl named Violet, encounter a hacker, and are sent to the hospital to correct their feeds. However Violet’s feed malfunctions and she decides to fight it. “What I’m doing, what I’ve been doing over the feed for the past two days, is trying to create a customer profile that’s so screwed, no one can market it. I’m not going to let them catalog me. I’m going to become invisible.” (Anderson 98). Throughout the novel the influence of consumerism and technology on the human mind is an obvious theme. The feed contributes to the overpowering influence of consumerism, the power of technology over the human mind and the good and bad effects of technology. In Anderson’s novel companies use the feed to lure people into buying their products. When they arrive on the moon, Titus and his friends receive ads from all of the stores and companies. The salesmen create scenes that please each person individually to get more people to buy their merchandise. “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 all the casinos and mud slides and the gift shops and places where you could rent extra arms.” (Anderson 8). These companies use the feed to their advantage because they know that it is easier to send everybody a banner on their feed than to advertise with signs and posters. The feed aids companies in boosting consumerism. Generation by generation, people are becoming more dependent on technology. Because of this people are spending more of their time online making it easier to get them to buy things. Violet realizes that since the very moment that they got the feed, corporations and businesses have been tracking and recording their likes and dislikes; keeping a record of what people buy so they can find products to sell that interest more people. “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” (Anderson 97). The feed is making it easier for technology to replace human intelligence. As technology becomes more and more a part of our lives, it can have both good and bad effects. Some good effects include making it easier to buy merchandise, being helpful in a troublesome situation, or providing entertainment when one is bored. However, even though technology can have many good effects, it also has some bad effects such as malfunctioning at inconvenient times, replacing an increasing amount of human functions, and having the annoying ability to be used against you in certain situations. Violet discusses the bad effects when she is in the car with Titus. “My feed is really malfunctioning… I’ve been going to technicians. The feedware is starting to produce major errors… I got my feed really late… If you get the feed after you’re fully formed, it doesn’t fit as snugly.” (Anderson 170). Violet is a living example of how technology replacing growing amounts of human functions is not always a good thing. One can see that no matter how helpful or fun technology is, it can have both bad and good effects on the world and the things living in it. The feed is an important piece of technology in Titus’ and his friend’s lives. It assists in the influence of consumerism, demonstrates how technology is increasingly replacing human intelligence, and presents how technology can have both good and bad effects on the human race. The influence of consumerism and technology on the human mind is a running theme throughout M.T. Anderson’s Feed and presents the truth that the influence of consumerism and technology on a person’s mind is overwhelming.