Snow Ball Paper - Feed (still working)

In the book Feed, by M.T. Anderson, is a story taken place in the future. M.T. Anderson created a world where the people of America were under control by a computer network called ‘Feednet’. The Feednet was an upgraded version of the internet, which was directly connected to an implanted chip located in a person’s brain. Implanted at birth, the feed constantly bombarded people with advertisements by sending different pop-up ads into their head. The feed also provides the internet, games, M-chat; an instant messenger, etc. Unfortunately, the feed did have its disadvantages. Because the feed was planted into a person’s brain, it interrupted a person’s thoughts of how he/she might have felt, physically and mentally.
M.T. Anderson revolved his futuristic world around a teenage boy named Titus and a girl named Violet Durn. Violet Durn was a weird girl who was introduced to Titus at a party. They both were partying with a few friends till their night was ruined by a hacker who hacked into people’s feeds. Titus was able to recover from the incident; however it took quite a while for Violet to heal. Their experience of spending time in the recovery room together built their friendship to a whole new level when they started to date. Soon after their recovery, Violet started to complain about the feed and how its way of processing information to a person’s mind was bad. Titus responded to her remark by explaining how the feed controls everything and that there is nothing anybody can do if the information received by the feed were an “evil corporation” (Anderson 48). Even though Titus had said that about the feed, it still did not stop Violet from thinking against the feed. There were various times in the book when she tried to show Titus that the feed was manipulating what people felt-emotionally and physically. She told Titus that “When you have the feed all your life, you’re brought up to not think about things. Like them never telling you that it’s a republic and not a democracy. It’s something that makes me angry, what people don’t know about these days. Because of the feed, we’re raising a nation of idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots” (Anderson 113). Violet used the government as an example to show how the feed is manipulative to those who have the feed, similar to how the America is lying to the people of our government is actually a republic and not a democracy as some people may call it. She revealed to Titus that everything the feed received from advertisements were corrupt. Violet failed to persuade Titus the difference between the ‘appearance’ of the feed vs. the essence of what the feed truly does to a person. The appearance of the feed is not necessarily the physical appearance of the chip, but what people perceive of how the feed may benefit to them in a positive way. Those who have the feed believe that it is enough to support a person in any given situation by communicating with others, getting a task done, or shopping. The advertisement alone tries to influence one to buy items that may benefit to him/her. Violet argues that these objects do not benefit to a person, but rather breaks a person apart. The true essence of the feed is how it manipulates a person’s mind through propaganda, persuading him/her to do what ever the feed may tell him/her to do. In Violet’s perspective, it is unfortunate that people depend on the feed, living day by day without natural emotions.
Later, Violet had the habit of resisting her own feed. Like every other feed, Violet received advertisement from any object she walked/looked at. By processing the advertisement into her feed, she had the choice to reject that response just by ignoring it. Violet shows Titus her new hobby of resisting the feed, but Titus did some resisting of his own by disagreeing with the whole concept of resisting the feed. Because of resisting the feed, Violet’s condition degenerates, soon causing her to explain to Titus that the reason behind her slow recovery is she had her feed at a late age of seven. Titus thought that age did not matter when a person had a feed. What he did not know is that the feed will not fit comfortably in a person’s brain if he/she gets it at a late age due the person’s full development after birth. The feed is “more susceptible to malfunction” (Anderson 170). It is out of the ordinary for a person to resist the feed that is providing a person with their needs. Again, Violet tries to recover by going onto Feedtech, though “Feedtech and other investors reviewed [her] purchasing history, and [they] don’t feel that [she] would be reliable investment at this time. No one could get what [they] call a ‘handle’ on [her] shopping habits, like for example [she] asking for information about all those wow and brag products and then never buying anything. [They] have to inform [her] that [their] corporate investors were like, ‘what’s doing with this?’ Sorry- [they’re] afraid [she]’ll just have to work with [her] feed the way it is” (Anderson 247). By first using the feed and then resisting it caused Violet to realize what the feed entailed when resisting against it. Violet was not able to be cured because of her resistance to the feed.