The Negative Effects Of Technology In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

Every evening after school I would flee home to the confinements of my room and bury my face in the bright white light of the iPad; and everytime I put it down, there was this biting restlessness to pick it up again. My social life diminished as my hours wasted on the iPad began to rise, and I began to feel the lost energy from many late nights. Though after months, an epiphany came. I awoke to find a naive middle schooler whose life was filled with nothing but the waste that fills much of Netflix and YouTube. I then asked my Mother to take the iPad away and almost magically my quality of life improved: I did better in school, went out with friends, and felt energized throughout the day. Yet, I worry. Not for me, but for those who are one step from the trap I fell into. An author, many years earlier, had the same worry. He explored this worry

After all, in Fahrenheit 451, the main source of passive entertainment is through technology. Furthermore, Bradbury hints at the negative effects of the medical device used to save Mildred, and the hound. Though, he doesn’t explicitly blame technology for the creation of the dystopian world, rather it’s how technology is used in Fahrenheit 451. For instance, Mildred uses cars as a form of passive entertainment, though, cars are an inarguably essential tool of great value in today’s world. She said, “I always like to drive fast when I feel that way. You get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful (64).” Ray Bradbury also shows that technology may be helpful, through the mics Faber and Montag use to communicate, the radios that inform the people of war, and even the train Montag uses to get to Fabers . It’s the overuse of passive entertainment as a distraction, and the loss of meaningful content that Ray Bradbury portrays as the cause of many problems in Fahrenheit