Feed_-_Book_Review

For an English class assignment I decided to read a book called Feed by M.T. Anderson. Anderson tells the story of a future where human brains are implanted with a direct connection to the web from birth. In the book, children go to school and they learn how to best utilize the Feed instead of having a tradition education. Their every thought is based upon their connection to the Network. The Feed whispers the latest trends and prices as the fall asleep and if they can’t sleep the Feed will play lullabies from around the world. Everyone in the Feed has lost the ability to read and write, and language has almost deteriorated completely. The characters search for the right words through online thesauruses and speak through instant messages when they are unable to express themselves. They can never leave the Feed – not that anyone would want to. Without it, their bodies would start to fail and go into “mal” (malfunction). I found Feed very interesting because its similarity to the real world. I thought about M.T. Anderson’s comments on peer pressure, trends, and advertising during and after I had put the book down. We’ve all heard it before: the amount of time Australians spend on the internet before is BAD. I thought maybe Anderson was right maybe what he was trying to say is that the internet tells us what to think. Maybe it makes us stupid. Like the characters in Feed, we have so much information at our fingertips. So much that maybe we are confusing collecting knowledge with thinking critically. Reading this book makes me think twice about how I use the internet whether it is to play games or for homework. I felt like I relied on the internet too much because I use it for almost everything. I use the internet as a dictionary, a way to communicate, play games, watch movies, even reading books and I believe that is unhealthy. I did have a think about what message Anderson was trying to get across by referring the teens in Feed as ‘mindless drones’. In reality, the internet is populated by plenty of smart kids who are in total control of ‘The Network’. I found it a bit insulting when the message he was getting across to me personally was teenagers using the internet can become mindless drones but honestly the internet is used for good for example I use the internet in nearly every subject in school and it’s not making me dumb.