This essay will show how the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson displays a critique of American consumer culture and the technology that supports it. Though we do not literally have a tiny microchip implanted in our brains, figuratively we do. Our nation’s so called “culture” is fixated on smart phones, shopping, latest fashion trends and technology, that it has become so much easier to communicate and shop with the advancements made within technology, allowing people to never have to interact with another living being. This has created a generation of people scared of interaction, almost a sort of social phobia. Whether watching television, surfing the internet, or streaming music on any of your devices, you will ultimately be bombarded with an …show more content…
These include shows on their feed, advertisements and the radio. All that they are engrossed in, the feed will process this and give them suggestions on things that they should buy. Using their feeds, they broadcast to others on how they are feeling, and what they are thinking and doing. The teens became so absorbed, that they completely shut out all that was going on in the real world; this is exactly what occurs in today’s society when individuals use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and so on. We also have instant messaging which has caused the youth of society to prefer to talk online rather than in person, and would much rather text similarly to that of the m-chat in Feed. In one scene of the novel, Titus and his friend’s chips get hacked and their feeds are turned off. This is an eye-opening and traumatic encounter because they must now live their lives as “normal” people, without their feeds. In another scene of the novel, Violets begins to die due to her feed being shut off; this is similar to how individuals feel when we do not have access to technology. We feel as though we are naked without our devices, the same way the teens felt, as though they were being stripped of their identities when their feeds were shut off, thus showing that technology sucks us in, almost as though we are slaves to our