HW 12- Feed A

Feed by M. T. Anderson is a commentary on the American way of life and where it is headed. Anybody who sees it otherwise, as a sci-fi story, a teenage drama, is not far off, but they do not see the full range the story showcases and the parallels to American life. Take for instance the party that the group of teens go to midway through the story. At this party, everybody is jamming to the same music via the feed, and everything is synchronized. People are dancing, partying and having a good time, with no sound actually leaving their physical bodies. This can be a parallel to two different things. The first being the party, which has kids getting high off of "Bulb-tweaker", which they refer to as a mild scrambler. Essentially, they shock themselves for a high. This is a parallel to teens who go to parties and do some form of drug up in a bedroom where people don't see. Another parallel being that the music is internal for everybody, which connects to a "silent rave". While not the most common things in the world, silent raves are parties or gatherings where people plug in music and dance and have a good time, but there are no speakers just everybody's headphones.

Another, more obvious connection is between the feed and the internet. Through the feed, you are connected to everybody else with a feed and you can M-Chat them. You can also find out everything you need to know, justifying it as an educational tool. However, there is also the onslaught of media coming at you from every angle conceivable, another parallel to the internet, where almost every web page has an advertisement of some sort. The only difference between the feed and the internet is that the feed is always there, but A-HA! There is a connection to the real world as well! The iPhone is a constant connection to the internet, and anybody who has one is constantly carrying it on their person. The iPhone is not alone in this category, because there is a near-constant stream of phones with these capabilities. Many of these even have news stories and internet facts pop up as you open the phone, including my dad's phone, which has a different headline every time you go to the main menu.

Feed also has a connection to the real world through Violet, who sees the Feed differently then everybody else and can in fact live without it much better than the others. She truly understands that the Feed is trying to manipulate people's beings and make them into junior corporate lackeys. This connects to people that understand the massive effect that the internet is having on people every day, or even the media. We are constantly bombarded by images and products just like the characters of Feed so that we are more likely to buy them, or to be warmed up to the idea slowly so that we can eventually buy into having everything we need thanks to the media telling us we can. To be able to see this is not uncommon, but to do something about it in a way that affects people in an interval of time longer than five minutes off of the computer is really something, to be able to change the normal routine that everybody is growing accustomed to thanks to the real world Feed is really something worth mentioning and striving towards.