Overuse Of Technology In Fahrenheit 451

The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury serves as a warning to today's generation and those of the future. The characters in the novel are used to get at key points way ahead of the time they were written in, such as the overuse of technology and the use of shortcuts. In the novel, the dystopian world had become a technological wasteland. Everyone was watching short clips in the “parlor” or playing sports. Parents pay no attention to their children, and kids are busy killing each other. Though the book was written in 1953, it is a perfect parallel to what the world is slowly becoming: an AI dominated society. The overuse of technology is a key point in the novel. As AI is becoming more advanced, humans are becoming less able to think for

The overuse of technology is a cause of social isolation. In Fahrenheit 451, characters such as Mildred and her friends are practically “plugged in” to the world. During the day they watch 30 second clips in the parlor, and at night they put earpieces in that play ocean sounds and drown out reality. This is becoming a real issue today through social media platforms such as tiktok or instagram. More and more people are becoming addicted to technology. Montag’s wife, Mildred is practically brainwashed. She lives in front of the TV in her parlor and barely notices the outside world. She has 3 walls of TV’s in her parlor but wanted another wall asking Montag, “How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in?” (Bradbury 18). Mildred barely ever acknowledges Montag because she is so hooked on the TV. She practically sits in front of it all day and even talks to her “family” on the TV. Similarly, in the movie Wall-e, all of the humans have become reliant on robots such as Wall-e to clean the earth, serve them lunch, talk to them, carry them around, and even control the ship. It is also noticeable that the humans aboard the ship are always staring at a screen. They communicate over something similar to facetime rather than

As technology has become more advanced, it has become more equipped for shortcuts. Texting has been taken over by abbreviations, movies have been shortened into 30 second narratives on Tiktok, and books are being replaced by summaries like Sparknotes. This issue can also be seen in Fahrenheit 451 when Beatty is trying to explain why they burn books to Montag. Beatty seems to be well experienced in this topic and explains how as life has gone on and developed, more and more people have become simple minded and require shortcuts in their daily lives. Beatty follows “the rules”, he is a devout fireman and believes that shortcuts are life savers and doing the full task is a waste of time. He believes “Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work” (Bradbury 53). Beatty explains to Montag that ever since technology has advanced, everything else has been cut shorter. Beatty explains how as people have become less self dependent, “Books [have been] cut shorter. Condensations. Digests, Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending” (Bradbury 52). In Fahrenheit, AI has practically become a digital shortcut. It is able to help with homework, tell jokes, and practically unlocks everything that anyone could want to know. It is almost like a digital ocean where the fish are