Fahrenheit 451 Technology Vs Reality

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Our screens today can help us achieve tasks that would seem impossible. With just a few clicks, we can see relatives half way across the world, or we can entertain ourselves with downloaded movies or play games on the countless amount of applications their are available on the app store. However too much screen time can lead to a society described like the one in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Where they have too much technology so they just stare at their televisions all day long. In reality however, Bradbury 's feared society, is coming closer to a reality. Fahrenheit 451 gives those who read it, a look into what could happen in the future. In the novel, many of the residents living in modern day Chicago, spend their lives like many do …show more content…

In reality, we are closer to a world like Bradbury 's dreaded society. In Fahrenheit 451, the people only had televisions to keep them occupied but in many cases, we are a lot worse than the citizens of modern Chicago. In the present day, we have a long list of technology at our disposal, including phones, laptops, televisions, and much much more. Which means that many more people are addicted to these forms of technology. In the United States, a massive '97% of boys under 18 and 94% of girls under 18 report playing video games regularly." (McGonigal.) "And the average young person racks up 10,000 hours of gaming by the age of 21." (McGonigal.) Which equates to the amount of time a student is in middle and high school combined accounting for perfect attendance. Most shockingly however, is a whopping 5 million people in the United States play for more than 40 hours a week. The average amount of time a person works for a full-time job. (McGonigal.) If video games are not enough, many Americans also use many forms of social media. Texting, twitter, and facebook are just a few examples of the social media that have gotten people injured or killed many people due to easily avoidable accidents. When people walk along the roads with a phone with their hands, "pedestrian injuries due to cellphone use are up 35 percent since 2010" (Distracted Walkers.) And because of these careless pedestrians, many cities have made speed limits lower than they used to be. Something that could be