Attitude. Throughout the book, Feed by M.T. Anderson, words such as “stupid, dumb, sucks and dadada” keeps appearing over time. I find this very similar to my current life as a digital teen. Not that I used these words all the time that I find it parallels to each other, it is the attitude that I or many of the others have towards things that we perceive. Especially around school, I heard these words all the time. Every time when we are in touch with things that we are not interested or difficult to understand, we commented as “dumb” or “stupid”. This enhance the idea of how now a days, we make such extreme assumptions about the things that we did not completely know. We just see the surface of the things, and we assume/label it as “this is dumb” in our minds. In the book for example, when Titus just met Violet and they were talking about the different planets, Titus said dumb constantly. “Are you having a good time? She asked. The moon really isn’t working out, I said. Next time, maybe you should try Mars. Yeah, I’ve been to Mars, I said. It was dumb. Suddenly, she laughed. Are you serious? Yeah, I’m serious. Omigod, she said. Mars is a whole planet. And it’s dumb! She was like, dumb? … I said, Yes, dumb. The whole world? Dumb.” It’s just that Titus did not find the moon appealing, he immediately consider it dumb. We no longer go back or reconsider our assumptions now a day because we are being so attached to the media’s dominant perspective. Yes, the digital representation devices make us into ignorants. I will say most teenage including myself did not just avoid problems, we barely ponder what’s beyond. I agreed with A.T. Anderson that we should “start exploring all the peculiar corners of the world that are out there. Because that’s the one thing the media does not encourage: a real sense of curiosity.”
Identity. In the book, M.T. Anderson depicts Violet as someone who is trying to define herself whether with the feed or vice versa. Since Violet installed her feed a little later than the others, it makes her character stands out even more as the book goes on. Like an exception. One of the quote that I really like was “Look at us! You don’t have the feed! You are feed. You’re feed. You’re being eaten! You’re raised for food! Look at what you’ve made yourselves!...She’s a monster! Covered with cuts! She’s a creature!” I find this very close to my current digital teen lifestyle. Especially the amount of time that I spend on computers, it often makes me feel like I am being replaced by the computers. People always told me never shall let fate to take control of you, or you will lose control of who you want to be. This is how I feel currently that I being “eaten” by the computer. I no longer can control how things go, but the computer. All these are caused by my habits of relying on the convenience of technologies. The computers won’t get any harm without us because they are objects, but we will screw up without them. In other words, I am no longer Bao Lin, but computer. Just as the phone numbers and screen names in instant messaging, I am just some numbers or letters. What’s else is left? “Everything I think of when I think of really living, living to the full – all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it’s what happens when they’re rolling the credits. My god. What am I, without the feed? It’s all from the feed credits. My idea of real life.”
Collapse.“Nobody knows. The feed is tied into everything. Your body control, your emotions, your memory. Everything. Sometimes feed errors are fatal.” When most of our generations were kids, when digital representation devices are not that popular, most of us are socially active outside. As a child, we find fun in every little thing that is around us. But now, the meaning of fun has been twisted. We no longer value those sweet memories like going on vacations, or spending time being together having fun actively. I will say many of our current memories must be digital related. Such as using facebook, texting through phones, instant message, video games...etc., all these digital representation devices that we obsessively use in daily basics reflects how much we value these things instead of our surroundings. Regardless of the advantages or disadvantages, I think it caused us to be very superficial. Many of the these devices has dominant our lives that we whether buy some more new clothes to conform instead of saving a kid who is suffering in the other part of the world. Perhaps seeing yourselves as some celebrities or reality show stars on facebook seems cool and it doesn't really affect anything. But eventually, fame ends up to be something that people values in life, which is something that is intangible, but only be able to feel inside. We will soon misinterpret many things around us, and value things erratically. We named the useless precious.
Collapse.“Nobody knows. The feed is tied into everything. Your body control, your emotions, your memory. Everything. Sometimes feed errors are fatal.” When most of our generations were kids, when digital representation devices are not that popular, most of us are socially active outside. As a child, we find fun in every little thing that is around us. But now, the meaning of fun has been twisted. We no longer value those sweet memories like going on vacations, or spending time being together having fun actively. I will say many of our current memories must be digital related. Such as using facebook, texting through phones, instant message, video games...etc., all these digital representation devices that we obsessively use in daily basics reflects how much we value these things instead of our surroundings. Regardless of the advantages or disadvantages, I think it caused us to be very superficial. Many of the these devices has dominant our lives that we whether buy some more new clothes to conform instead of saving a kid who is suffering in the other part of the world. Perhaps seeing yourselves as some celebrities or reality show stars on facebook seems cool and it doesn't really affect anything. But eventually, fame ends up to be something that people values in life, which is something that is intangible, but only be able to feel inside. We will soon misinterpret many things around us, and value things erratically. We named the useless precious.
I expanded this based on the comments, and they are in color brown. Thanks Andy.
I really like how you embedded some aspects of what you read into the blog. You stated that technology leads us not to explore the world beyond. I do agree with you on some levels;however, I do think that the digital age has given us answers to questions that would have been forgotten had the access to information not be right at our finger tips.
ReplyDeleteBLZ,
ReplyDeleteLiked this post a lot. Effective style and organization.
Seems like your "Collapse" section isn't really about the collapse of society or ecology, but the entanglement of digital aspects of our lives into daily existence. Could you clarify that and expand it. Does it matter that people see themselves a little bit as reality show stars on Facebook?