Technology In Fahrenheit 451

Is our society starting to parallel the one shown in Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451? The book was written in 1953; however the setting takes place in Bradbury's predicted future. Throughout the novel about the firemen who burn books instead of reading them, Bradbury writes about his fears of the future while talking about the consequences of advanced technology. He shows how swift technology has enabled the citizens to constantly move about, and try to accomplish everything. However, this creates a certain speed in their life that also has its consequences. The society has adapted to this lifestyle by getting rid of ‘useless information’ and only keeping what they really need to function, but in result, they lack depth in their

‘And I should think you'd consider me sometimes. If we had a fourth wall, why it'd be just like this room wasn't ours at all, but all kinds of exotic people's rooms. We could do without a few things.’” (pg 18).Mildred already has enough things to keep her occupied, but she insists on getting the fourth parlor wall. They don’t have enough money to afford it, but Mildred has the mindset that Dr. Stephanie Brown talked about of “I want it now!” despite the fact that her entertainment system fails to keep her happy enough to not attempt suicide. This shows the direct correlation between Bradbury's fears written seventy five years ago, and our society today because the same behaviors are exhibited due to the speed of life. In her article, Dr. Brown also refers to the effects of a quick paced life, “Researchers note that this push for speed is changing the way people think. The need to be efficient and instant leads to a dumbing down of information intake so that people become scanners and ‘decoders’ of information, cruising horizontally across the screen to pick up bytes, rather than delving towards a deeper understanding.” The “push for speed” has caused people to narrow things down in order to create time. This same thing occurs in Fahrenheit 451, when books under took the slow process of being shortened, and eventually eliminated because they can’t be streamlined. This is also what Beatty describes when he talks about broadcasters

Fahrenheit 451 shows us how when concentrating on doing things fast, people lose the ability to slow down and focus on more meaningful things such as important ideas, philosophies, relationships, or happiness. They are caught up in the fast paced environment, and it seems wasteful to do things a different way that might benefit them more, but take too much time. Hence, they rely on the best technology to help them, and get caught in the vicious cycle of always wanting to be better and have more, yet constantly responding in a way that means they have less. Fahrenheit 451 also demonstrates the critical idea of how people lose details while having a future-focused mentality. The ability to multitask is important; however, long-term multitasking usually doesn’t lead to the most effective use of time, and can create even more mistakes. It is essential that we realize how Bradbury's thoughts on speed controlling society can be used to help prevent further addiction to speed in our society so we don’t end up completely like them, without the ability or desire to think an original thought. Bradbury shows how people start to lose interest in learning things like language arts and social sciences, and end up forgetting how to have a real conversation. They start to see flowers and lawns as blurs, and eventually people, objects, and