A World of Idiots, Isolation, and Insensitivity

Technology. What would we do without it? Technology has assisted the world we know today with major breakthroughs such as finding cures to deadly diseases and solving crimes. This cyberspace of artificial intelligence has integrated itself into common life so much, that society cannot function without it. The question proposed now: Has technology began to cripple humanity? Has it already happened? Yes, technology cripples the world as much as it moves the world forward. In M.T. Anderson's Feed, technology progresses to the point that people have chips in their brains that give them access to the Web in a millisecond; but it comes at a price. People who have the "feed" submit themselves to the control of corporations, whose sole purpose is to bombard its users with advertisements, which essentially rids them of all empathy connections to fellow human beings. In M.T. Anderson's prophetic novel Feed, one discerns how the technology of the feed desensitizes humans to the point that they can barely think for themselves, build relationships with each other, and perceive the wonder of the world around them, ultimately analyzing humanity's greatest strength as humanity's greatest downfall; the more connection technology gives a person to everything, the more alone they remain.

Throughout Feed, one witnesses technology suppresses independent thought process in the main characters as they go about their lives, conveying the sinister twist of being able to know everything and nothing at the same time. In "Part 1: moon" Titus, the main protagonist, describes how lonely he has been feeling lately after leaving parties "there's nothing but the feed telling you, This is the music you heard. This is the music you missed. This is what's new. Listen," revealing how much control the feed has over Titus as it forces him to listen to this music (5). Titus can't even truly interpret how Violet's spine appears to him without "the feed suggest[ing] "supple," depicting how much Titus relies on the feed to look up information instead of knowing to begin with (p.14). Violet understands this in "Part 3: utopia" when she chats Titus explaining, "when you have the feed all your life, you're brought up to not think about things...because of the feed, we're raising a nation of idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots" (113). Violet demonstrates how some people CAN resist the feed and understand what's happening to the world around her while everyone else is brainwashed into being the perfect consumer for the feed corporations (p.113). In the futuristic book Feed one witnesses how technology has taken hold of the thinking process of humans, giving one the impression that while technology seems so ideal on the outside, it truly undermines human existence, and one's ability to articulate and understand genuine emotions, ultimately regressing humanity back to being Neanderthals.

In addition, one observes how technology instead of expanding a person's emotional capacity in emotion and relationships, diminishes it, providing evidence for how isolated our society has grown. As Violet falls more and more ill, Titus does not know what to do, and subconsciously pulls away from her. When Violet sends Titus her memories for fear of losing them, because she feels that if those are gone, she has nothing left without a past to look back on. Titus deletes them all of the memories and lies to Violet, saying he never got her memories. Titus cannot fall asleep that night since he feels guilty for letting Violet down and deleting her messages. Violet needs Titus; yet Titus does not know what to do for her because he already sees her dead in his mind's eye. When Violet jokes about her dad finding out her adventure with Titus to the mountains she explains,"...what's he going to do? Ground me for the rest of my life? Meaning, like, fifteen minutes"(p.259). Titus disapproves of Violets jokes about her condition, "because you just don't joke about your life....especially if you have something wrong with you, and you keep bringing it up in certain ways," which reveals how much it hurts Titus to hear Violet talk that way, and how he does not know how to respond or act (p.259). Titus has had a feed all of his life, and it has reduced his capacity to reach out to another human. It has isolated him that much. The limitedness of the formation of characters' ability to maintain relationships due to technology discovering it to be a crutch for humanity that blinds us to not empathize and sympathize with one another, leading mankind to unrelenting doom.

Feed, a novel conjured by M.T. Anderson, displays a world where advanced technology blinds mankind to the simple wonders of the world around them, enlightening audiences of the terrible desensitizing power it possesses. On the very first page of the novel, Titus states, "we went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck," and one can't help but want to cause him physical pain to the cranium with a well placed flick of the wrist (p.1). The feed has benumbed Titus so much to the marvel of the natural world that he finds that going to the moon sucks, whereas in common day society we cannot fathom going to the moon as a vacation! The same instance when Titus and Violet go out to the country for the day and visit a tissue farm. Titus' world has a way to farm meat by cloning. They create the part that people eat, and all they say is "cool", as if this phenomenon does not strike them to be as mindblowing as a "brag" new shirt the feed shows them. Titus has grown up with this amazing marvels around him that society downsizes. Titus now only find these marvelous technological advancements mildly interesting. In M.T, Anderson's extraordinary work Feed, one discerns how technology takes away the wonder of the natural world by breaking it down so much that we humans may reward, ultimately pushing us to reach for nature's order better left unsoiled.

M.T. Anderson's award-winning novel Feed takes audiences worldwide through a fantastical world of super-advanced technology as a warning of calamity if currently the world continues to progress at its current rate. Anderson's main characters find themselves facing challenges they never imagined possible caused by their feeds, and not all seen by the naked eye. Violet loses control of her body, and eventually her life as a result of imperfections with her feed, something that should have made her life easier. Titus does not realize how much Violet needs him as support, owing to the fact that his feed has taken away all forms of Titus' ability to make complex decisions and feel emotions for himself that Violet needs from him. In M.T. Anderson's prophetic novel Feed, one discovers how the technology of the feed benumbs humans to the point that they can hardly think for themselves, create and maintain relationships with one another, and perceive the beauty of the world around them. The novel displays how humanity's greatest strength is mostly humanity's greatest downfall; the more connection technology gives a person to everything, the more isolated they become, even from the people they hold dearest.