Effects Of Technology On Fahrenheit 451

One of the most common sights we see is adults and children on their phones playing games or texting rapidly. Many of us have heard that technology has negative effects on us humans physically and mentally. However, in 1953, Ray Bradbury astonishingly predicted and warned the human population against technology in his book, Fahrenheit 451. In this book, the main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who burns books in a society where reading is illegal and is considered rebellious. However, he meets a young woman named Clarisse who led him to question the society’s rules. Clarisse’s questions about the world led him to become interested in books, even though he faced opposition from the Fire Captain, Beatty, his wife, and the government. In the

An example of this is provided when Bradbury asserts, “Mildred!’ Her face was like a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall, but it felt no rain; over which clouds might pass their moving shadows, but she felt no shadow...The small crystal bottle of sleeping tablets which earlier today had been filled with thirty capsules and which now lay uncapped and empty...The keys to the beetle are on the night table. I always like to drive fast when I feel that way. You get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful. Sometimes I drive all night and come back and you don’t know it. It’s fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs” (13-64). This quote shows two effects which are consequences of large amounts of technology: depression and an inability to feel various emotions, including compassion. Since Mildred took so many sleeping pills shows, the reader can infer that she was depressed and was not happy, as the government wanted her to be. Additionally, throughout the book, Bradbury suggests to the reader in different ways that Mildred is antisocial, since she spends most of her time in front of the parlor walls or with her Seashell radios. This quote also shows Mildred’s inability to feel compassionate towards the animals. Instead, she directly says that she enjoys killing the animals for fun and this inability to feel compassionate is caused by her constant use of technology. This quote is a clear indication against the negative consequences of the constant use of technology, since it can have side effects including depression, causing one to become antisocial, and an inability to feel emotions. The inference that too much technology can make you antisocial can be proven in the articles, “Technology: Is it making kids antisocial?,” when Morgan Hampton writes, “Today children are more dependent upon