Connecting Through a Screen, Not a Friend The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury warns modern society about deterioration in relationships and human connections due to the overuse of technology. Technology is isolating, distancing people from having relationships and human connections. Various kinds of technology are distractions that entice people until they become addicted and detach themselves from everyone else. Additionally, technology does not reap the benefits that others can obtain from social interactions with one another. Technology causes people to become numb and emotionless not only to themselves, but to others as well. Modern readers should take caution to prevent technology from destroying their relationships with other people. …show more content…
Technology’s alluring qualities make it so people would rather use technology than socialize with others. Fahrenheit 451 exemplifies addictions to technology, which are becoming progressively worrisome for modern society. Montag struggles with people no longer listening to each other, and he notices his relationship with his wife, Mildred, slip away as she lets television dominate her life. Montag argues, “‘Nobody listens anymore. I can’t talk to the walls because they are yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls’” (Bradbury 78). With technology’s presence, people no longer have a need to listen when they have an immediate source of entertainment at their fingertips. Montag does not want to be bombarded by the persistent distraction of the television, yet he cannot connect with his wife because she is addicted to listening and watching the television. Television is entertaining and draws people in until they no longer have basic human interactions. In Wall-E, in the midst of a problem, Captain B. McCrea realizes that he and the other crew members do nothing with their lives because of how addicted they have become to their screens, one of the many forms of technology aboard the Axiom. He utters, “‘I can't just sit here and…and…do nothing! That's all I've done! That's all anyone on this blasted ship has ever done…NOTHING!!’” (Wall-E). The overwhelming and essential need for technology on the Axiom leads to the crewmembers’ dependency and obsession with technology. Filling their days with the mindless activities of technology accomplishes nothing. As a result, Captain B. McCrea acknowledges that instead of building relationships with other people, he spends his life in front of a screen. “Can’t put down the phone? How smartphones are changing our brains - and lives” communicates why people only become increasingly addicted to technology when they use it more, and allow it