For my quarter one independent reading, I read “Feed” by M.T. Anderson. This book is set in a near future where micro-chip brain feeds are implanted in almost all citizens. I would suggest this book for several reasons. To start, readers contemplate their personal beliefs on the extent of technology while reading about inventions that are entirely possible. “Feed” holds characters who experience conflict constantly over this topic as well. In reading this book, students are able to expand their personal beliefs and opinions by being exposed to different arguments and ideas. “Feed” also points out flaws in extensive technology that not many feel comfortable acknowledging. Although technology is a tool that is beneficially in many ways, “Feed” shows the side where humans become all too dependent on it. This book gives a new perspective to the “Age of Technology” and the …show more content…
Anderson is language and communication. With the capabilities of the feed implant, it is no longer necessary to speak aloud. With mental-chatting as the norm, the language that Titus and his friends supposedly speak is slowly deteriorating. Violet’s father is one person who sees this problem and attempts to fix it. Violet explains this as, “He says the language is dying. He thinks words are being debased. So he tries to speak entirely in weird words and irony, so no one can simplify anything he says” (Anderson, 137). Since this form of texting mind-to-mind is common in “Feed”, the characters almost seem to loose the human ability to speak aloud to connect with one and other. Titus explains that, “I hate these kind of conversations [out loud]. I was feeling completely squeam” (Anderson, 169). The ways that these characters communicate leads readers to believe that in the future of the book’s society, language will no longer be necessary. Since speaking is becoming a deteriorating practice in this book, language and communication is a major theme of
Feed by M.T. Anderson is an ADULT sci-fi novel about a world in the future where a new technology, called the Feed, is implanted into your brain. Feed was a boring and uninteresting book that should not be added to the already rigorous English curriculum for 9th grade students. The curriculum consists of other novels such as Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I write to parents, teachers, and school administrators because they have the ability to make the right choice for our students. I believe that the book Feed shouldn’t be adopted into the English curriculum for freshman students because it sets a bad example for students, it teaches very little to children, and it is not practical for 9th graders.
Key terms will be pointed out and highlighted, as well as described in relation to the examples extracted from the film. To begin with the film started out with a communication climate that was both tense and without verbal communication. This was mainly due to the variance in membership constructs of the characters involved. The character's included the brain Brian, Andrew the athlete, the criminal Bender, the princess Claire, and the basket case Allison. There was a great deal of interesting nonverbal communication taking place between these people. Their reactions and responses to each other demonstrated perceptual errors, which would be shown as the story progressed.
The topic for today’s reading was Functional Communication: What It is and What It is Not. The assigned reading, Facilitated Communication—what harm it can do: Confessions of a former facilitator, presented the case story of the Wheaton daughter’s facilitator where she said that twenty years ago, she was the facilitator in the Wheaton case, a story featured on Frontline’s Prisoners of Silence and, later, in a 20/20 episode with Hugh Downs. She admitted to held Betsy Wheaton’s hand and typed out accusations against her family members. These accusations were graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault that had no bearing in reality. No physical evidence of abuse existed, but her words typed through the guise of FC, put in motion events that caused serious damage to many people including Betsy and her brother who were removed from their home to foster care, while her parents were charged. All this irreparable heartache was caused by my unshakeable belief in FC. During all this happened, she wanders how could she not noticed that she was moving the child’s hand for all this time, and realized that she was having conversations with herself. Also she expressed how everyone in the room, including the guardian ad litem, knew that FC was fake and that she was not the child’s facilitator but the one moving her arm. FC is more about the facilitator’s desire to connect with their disabled family member or client than it is about the disabled person’s ability to communicate through FC. On the other hand, the frontline video showed how non-verbal people with normal intelligence were able to have relevant conversations, and how this people treated as non-functional individuals were using keyboards to break the silence between children...
In part one, Petersen paints a picture of how he became interested in the topic of communication. He also describes major problems that all communicators have in common. Since he grew up in an environment full of communication deficiencies, it drove him to clarify issues that were common to all communicators. One of the foundational concepts to Petersen’s book is the nature of communication. Petersen called communication the lubrication designed to keep functions of stomach, heart, and head working separately and together. The stomach is the source of feeling words, the heart is the source of perspective words, and the head is the source of our perception of facts. Without these three elements working together, communication becomes deficient. In my experience and understanding how this concept of thinking and feeling affects mine and others people relationships goes a long way towards reducing disagreement and disconnection.
The feeling of thin paper in between your fingers as you flip the page and even the sound of a pen roughly scratching against paper are simple pleasures that the next generation will not experience. Our society’s dependence on technology is taking its toll on people 's minds and dimming the world’s future. Our intelligence and innovation are slowly being wiped away. With a lack of basic human knowledge, a weak education system, and a dim future, our dependence on technology is creating an ignorant society.
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
While writing, authors use a variety of literary devices to allow the reader to comprehend the main idea that needs to be taken from the story. Included in these literary devices is diction, and diction is crucial in the author’s development of the tone and theme that is produced. Without precise word choice, the reader would not know what kind of emotions to feel or what kind of ideas to think about the piece of writing. In the futuristically set short story, television runs everybody’s lives, and nobody can be who they are anymore due to their sitting in front of a television screen. The use of Bradbury’s selective wording throughout his story leads the reader to step into an eerie, yet strangely familiar setting. In the short story, “The Pedestrian”, Ray Bradbury uses diction to emphasize the morbid tone displayed throughout the story line and to emphasize the overall theme that technology can replace individualism.
Relating back to my thesis, it seems like the use of electronic devices is something that is a definitely a growing issue. And while Carr does not have all the evidence in the world to prove his point, he does have enough to back up what he is saying. Carr is able to use a relatable topic to help draw discussion on something that may be an issue in the future. Also, another strong point in this article, is the fact that almost everyone can relate to having a shortened attention span when reading for long periods of time. It is also evident that the strong points outweigh the weak in this article. Nicholas Carr has many strong points in his article. He successfully proves that what he has to say is worthy of his readers time, and that maybe we should all take caution to how much time we spend on the
It is very clear to me that we live in a very dynamic world that changes constantly. The rate at which we communicate what is essential at the moment seems to progress and speed up as technology gets a progressive upgrade. In reality we are what we are thanks to technology, and because of this technology communication seems to evolve with our own evolution as human beings. I start of with technology because by reading the chapter I really fell in love with what the true concept of interpersonal communication is and how its versatility is adjustable to the modern day. It is funny how we involuntarily participate on a daily basis in this interpersonal interactions with one another and make it extremely effective again to the point that it is subconsciously done. There several aspects of my life that evolve this natural human instinct and I feel it relates the most to technology.
We live in a time where technology is at the center of our society. We use technology on a daily basis, for the simplest tasks, or to aid us in our jobs, and don’t give a second thought to whether these tools are actually helping us. Writers such as Kevin Kelly and Clive Thompson argue that the use of technology actually helps us humans; whiles writers such as Nicholas Carr argue that technology affects people’s abilities to learn information negatively.
The first of the many ideas conveyed in Carr’s article is that the brain is malleable like plastic. To explain, the professor of Neuroscience, James Olds, says that “nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones” (Carr 4). This means that the human brain changes the way it functions according to the information manipulated by neurons. In the novel Feed, brain malleability is involved in the climax of the story. The feed works as a computer chip being directly inserted into a person’s brain. The climax of the story occurs when Titus and his group of friends get their brain chips hack. Before the attack, Violet, one of the main characters, never questions the society she lives in. However, after her brain chip is affected, her thoughts and brain functions rewired and from then, she starts to reflect on society. Given the climax of the story, the novel illustrates how even a brain chip cannot stop the natural malleability property of the human brain.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com Perry, Bruce, in 1999. ECT Interview: Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain. http://content-scholastic.com Science Daily, January 7, 2007. Most Middle-
Mannoia, Jim (1997, May 15). A philosopher looks at the effect of modern technology on our view of human life. At http://www.houghton.edu/offices/acad_dean/Techpap.htm.
The future of education is very promising to younger generations. From Kindergarten though college many changes are brewing. On the horizon are things like smart objects, full-length online courses, and prosthetic devices designed to equalize education.
I wonder why sometimes people are afraid of their intelligence. Don’t imagine your life without technology because the progression of technology will never stop, and it will continue to benefit us. As technology advances, our society is able to advance also. Instead of tangle with how technology causes laziness or distracts us from what is important, it would better to think about how to use technology to make our life better.