Independence In Feed By M. T. Anderson's Feed

Independence is a skill learned by being reliant on oneself. Due to the increased availability and use of the internet, the human race is becoming less independent. People are more reliant on the internet, decreasing their knowledge. They are continually progressing into a lazier society. People also use the internet to escape from their emotional or mental stress. M.T. Anderson is expressing a decrease in independence of today’s society due to the internet through his novel, Feed. M.T. Anderson expresses the idea of humans being entirely reliant upon the internet for knowledge throughout Feed. The Feed provides everything the characters need so proper education is not necessary. Their version of school teaches them how to use their Feed

Violet feels that because of the Feed, people are being fed knowledge, therefore, their knowledge is limited. After complaining that people don’t know whether the nation is a republic or a democracy, she states that people are, “brought up to not think about things” (Anderson 113). She believes that people are too consumed with the feed and themselves to worry about other things in the world. Anderson is proposing that if humans become too invested in technology and themselves, then the human race will become a nation of self-centered people. An editor from The Gazette states, “…the thing that bothers me most about today’s generation is that we are told not to care anymore. People always want something in return and are generally too lazy to do stuff from the goodness of their heart” (Gazette). Common knowledge of society is being destroyed by busy schedules and laziness. Anderson is also showing an increased laziness through the speech used by characters in Feed. The adults talk with slang, making them sound less educated. For example, when the kids are being examined after the Feed hack, the doctor says, “Could we get like a thingie, a reading on his limbic activity?” (Anderson 69). Titus’s father refers to Titus as, “dude”. Anderson is making a point humans are becoming more reliant on the internet for knowledge and less independent. Therefore,

For example, to make up for Titus’s feed being hacked and malfunctioning, his parents bought him a car. When Titus is fearfully talking about the hacker, his dad assures that he is safe and says, “You have an upcar” (Anderson 127). The upcar was not actually making Titus any safer. However, his father still used the upcar to make Titus feel better about the situation. Also, when Titus becomes anxious about Violet’s weakening Feed, he uses online shopping to comfort himself. He, “stayed up all through the early morning, shivering, ordering, ordering, and was awake at dawn…” (Anderson 294). This is similar to how people enjoy shopping or binge watching Netflix to relieve mental or emotional distress. Therefore, people have become reliant on material possessions or technology as an escape from reality. The internet creates desires for these things, convincing people that they will solve their problems. This is making people dependent on the internet. People are less independent in the way they deal with their emotions, relying entirely upon their desires for physical pleasures instilled by the