Right away I was sure I wasn't going to like this book. I actually put it down for a month or so, and only picked it up one day because I didn't have anything else to read, and I just hadn' gotten around to taking it back to the library yet. The problem was that the main character reminded me way too much of Holden Claufield. I know, I know I DID like 'Catcher in the Rye' but reading that character was such a downer; I didn't appreciate the book at all until the end. It has been so long since I read it, all I remember now is the terrible negative attitude and the "I really do"s where a little contagious. So I wasn't really up for anything that would put me in a bad mood. Fortunately, when I picked it up again I didn't have too much more to read before the book got really interesting.
"Feed" refers to the constant flow of information that people in the story have coming to them directly through the implants in their brains. It is like being constantly connected to he internet and seeing it all in your head. The main character, Titus, is a teenager growing up in the United States in this world where people have had feeds for a few generations already. He, his famiy, and even the president of he United States speak as if they are chatting online because for generations they have had the capability to chat each other using the feed.
The feed also monitors their purchases, their browsing history, and even their feelings and moods to suggest things they should buy which can be done using the feed. People are so dependent on the feed they feel that the feed sometimes knows what they want even before they know it themselves.
Titus and his friends are hacked by some kind of "whacko" protesting the feed and the superconsuming habits of the people. In the middle of a night club their bodies freeze and they begin chanting the hackers message. The hack has lasting effects on one of the characters, creating a situation which forces Titus to look at what is happening to the world around him.
This idea of a feed is really interesting to me. In the last year I along with most of the rest of the world, as far as I can tell, have become an avid facebooker. When I first signed up I would find time once every couple of weeks to sign in and see who had contacted me. Now I sign on almost every day. I think I'm pretty good at using it to keep up with people and not to waste away hours of my life, but it is pretty tempting from time to time to think about finding out what Golden Girls character I am most like, or share 25 useless peices of information about myself with all of my friends. Not too many years ago I didn't see the purpose of having a cell phone. Now I'm not sure why I don't get one that will allow me to facebook from anywhere. I wonder how many of us would implant a feed if it meant we could facebook all of the time without having to carry around a cell phone.
The market profiling the feed does is not really a peice of fiction either. We scan our Kroger card every week, and for it we get coupons in the mail from Kroger. Over the last couple of years they've really got a hold on our purchasing habits. They seems to know when we're about to run out of toothpaste, and send a coupon to save with Kroger before we have the time to think about getting it elsewhere.
I was introduced to internet radio at pandora.com this week. If I have a lot of work (or play) to do on the computer, I've been a pretty loyal Live365.com listener. But Pandora will build a station just for you. All you do is put in an artist or song you feel like listening to, and Pandora builds you a playlist with songs you would like. It seems to select music based on the what they call the musical "genes" of a song.
Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical
identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to
instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich
world of singing and vocal harmony.
I just copied and pasted that sentence from http://www.pandora.com/mgp.shtml See how much easier it is to use the feed than try to express something yourself!
I typed in one of the more obscure Latin artists I've come across lately and instantly had a whole radio station full of similar artists I've never heard of, but so far I have enjoyed them all just as much.
Amazon will suggest purchases for me based on what I've browsed and bought, and I often find myself wanting whatever they suggest.
All of this, especially Pandora which I'm using now to listen to my very own "Jack Johnson" station, is wonderful. But are we on the fast track to the decline of civilization? In school I complain about my students' inability to read an analog clock (We're learning to tell time in Spanish this week.) We all rack our brains at how to help our students express themselves better in writing and sore better on their standardized tests. Are these struggles new, or have teachers been struggling for years with the same problems?
While the main character's feed is temporarily off line for a time after the hacker got to them, he describes the blank look on people's faces as he tries to communicate with them and they are simultaneously shopping, getting news, and chatting on the feed. The other day Chris and I were talking about the events of our days and as the news, or Jeopardy or whatever we were watching came back from commercial we both paused the conversation, one of us in mid-sentence, to continue watching. I wonder how often we do that, never to return to the topic of conversation.
The people in the book consume and consume without regard for the consequences to the environment. How often do we buy a shirt or eat a banana without so much as a thought about the carbon footprint of it's delivery to us or the inhumane treatment of or inadequate compensation to those who created it?
Well, the book certainly made me think. If you get a chance to pick it up definitely promise yourself to read at least to the end of Part 1 before you decide to put it back on the shelf for good. You'll be glad you did.
1 comment:
Oooo...these are some really good thoughts, Eric. Personal interaction is definitely lacking in our society nowadays. It's a big issue that Josh and I have even faced within churches that we've worked in and attended.
Not only are we dumbing ourselves down with pointless activities but it's also enabling us to be even more self-centered. Our neediness often becomes a higher priority then paying attention to the needs of a neighbor who may have just lost their job and has a family to provide for. We may be too busy texting to help an old lady with her grocery bags. We may be too busy checking out the latest fashions or admiring the latest advances in plastic surgery online that we forget to be real people and care about others.
Good blog.
Post a Comment