Fahrenheit 451 and the Use of Technology
Phones, computers, TVs, and the internet dominate modern society. Technology and the lack of books is a very prominent part of the society and the storyline throughout Fahrenheit 451 as well. Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the 1950s, but he described many different kinds of futuristic technologies, some of which we even see today.
The technology that Bradbury describes in Fahrenheit 451 must have seemed unreasonable to readers in the 1950s, but we have seen that this technology is feasible indeed.
Bradbury was frighteningly accurate in some of his predictions of future technology. In Fahrenheit 451, the people wear devices called “Seashells” in their ears. These are very similar to modern-day headphones. Bradbury illustrates the people on the subway as being antisocial and every person seemed to be wearing seashells. In modern-day society, a considerable amount of people wear headphones and listen to music on our public transportation systems. The seashells
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He saw the trend away from books, even in the early 1950s. Today’s younger generation have also raised caution flags for some older people about technology. Many young adults and kids are consumed in their phones and other devices and no longer read books or engage in deep conversations as often as they used to. Kids tend to spend more time playing video games and watching television rather than playing outside or reading. Modern society is not in the same ballpark as the society in Fahrenheit 451, but the trend is still alarming. The next few generations may see a steep tendency towards technology and away from written literature. Even if books are still a prominent part of our society, people are more inclined to read on tablets and/or computers instead of paper books. One reason that Bradbury may have feared modern technology replacing books is because the value of books is so