In M.T. Anderson’s dystopian novel Feed we encounter a society comprised of rampant and mindless consumerism. The thoughts and personalities of the individuals have little meaning in this world filled with technology and ubiquitous conformity. The characters in Feed all fall into the category of ideal consumers, following the cycle society is stuck in. School and learning have become a thing of the past, and due to the feed implants any information is now at their fingertips. Schools are now owned by private firms, the sole purpose of education is to create better consumers. Titus, the protagonist in the novel is the embodiment of a mindless citizen, who resides in the conformable bed of his conformity. The society created by the feed hinders …show more content…
individuality of its citizens, only to bolster the company’s profit. The future, depicted in the novel, is indeed mundane requiring little to no effort.
Citizens have their passions taken away and no goals by not being able to pursue a degree and restricted mentally, unable to be an intelligent member of society. Companies like the idea of simplifying the minds of their consumers, in order for citizens to mindlessly contribute to their cycle of consumerism. Essentially, all a citizen is to society is a mindless shopper having little to no difference between everyone else. When an individual isn’t able to buy anything and has little individuality subsequently everything they think about is influenced by companies through the feed. What are they, a perfect example of just what the corporation’s want, a mindless consumer with no other goal than to buy and consume products which are thrown at them via the feed. Violet exemplifies this idea of mindless conformity and the suppression of individuality caused by the feed when talking with Titus, “They keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone... everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people”(97). One of the main reasons for this is to make society to one of their types for easy marketing. The feed clutters the mind of the user creating an inability to think for them by being bombarded by …show more content…
advertisements. By removing school society essentially becomes a less intelligent population, brainwashing the minds of children and adults to not be able to think about their reality, rather only the companies they wish to buy from. Society today can be comparable to the cast of feed. Rather than having a feed implanted we have portable feeds which are manipulated by our hands, our cell phones. We can be compared to the characters in feed in the sense that we both have technology that we depend on, which influences our thoughts and actions. The cell phone can be seen as a modern day feed, with smart phones being the most advanced version. Cell phones today are used for more than what they were developed for, communication. We are now able to access social media and the internet though our devices, when so closely connected with all of one’s favorite apps, it’s difficult to not focus on them and think for yourself. Violet argues to Titus that the feed dissuades the user from thinking, making them ignorant to their society, “When you have the feed all your life, you’re brought up no to think about things” (113). Violet states that due to the abundance of information given by the feed, society is essentially becoming absentminded. The motivation for companies to do this is to keep society in the palm of their hand, in order to manufacture better consumers. Twitter, for example, released an update in which ads are displayed in between the tweets the user receives from followers on the home feed. Advertisements are displayed on every website and television show the only way to escape their influence is to unplug. Google can also be compared to the feed, google is now recording user’s searches and compiling them to adjust what they advertise in order to cater to one’s item selection so they have a potential to sell more. We are comparable to the cast in feed because we are both mindless consumers in the eyes of corporations.
Corporations disregard our personal interests or individuality, their only motivation is to sell their products to the masses. Cell phones have not been evolved to the extent to which influences your thoughts and opinions directly like the feed does, so there is hope in stopping this cycle. By reducing our dependency on technology we will be able to less likely be brainwashed by these companies. By viewing advertisements everywhere over time your brain puts them in the back of your mind when a person scrolls though the page, however neither the mental image nor the thought of each advertisement seen goes away. Once an ad has replayed enough times a consumer eventually begins to think about it, whether they like it or not. M.T. Anderson’s prediction of society has been so close to correct that it is scary and displeasing to think about the future, Anderson who wrote the book in 2002 had no idea the innovation of smart phones and being able to access the internet
portably. Embedded within the sites are ads which are catered to our previous searches which is comparable to what the feed did except the feed uses actual feelings. After Titus and Violet get in a confrontation in the cabin, they are silent on the way home in the upcar. Titus begins to feel sad about the distance being created between Violet and him. The feed takes advantage of Titus’s discomfort, “You low? ... not for long-not when you find out the savings you can enjoy at Weatherbee & Crotch’s Annual Blowout Summer Fashions Sale” (274). Titus recognizes there is something wrong in doing this but he buys a jersey anyways. The feed took advantage of Titus’s emotions and put forth a product based on what he was feeling. The future depicted by the dystopian novel is exaggerated in the sense that we don’t all have chips implanted in our brains and probably never will. Corporations are using techniques to create better consumers, however present day schools in a way are teaching us how to be consumers. When an individual obtains a degree they find a job and start providing for themselves. With the revenue they generate from work they begin to buy goods with that money. So in a generalized sense we are being trained to become consumers just not as blatantly as the characters in feed. In conclusion, companies in order to bolster profitable gains are trying to reduce the individuality of citizens, in order to appeal to the masses. To resist the future path set out and becoming like characters in Feed we must reduce our dependency on technology. However, as time dictates the technology industry is going nowhere, it all starts with the people, if we band together and refuse to use the products put forth by these industries their infrastructure will fail and succumb to nothing. Society today is dependent on smart phones for too much that we are disregarding important to know information like the streets in the towns we live in. Instead of learning the street names we rely on maps to get us around. As more and more substitutes for knowledge come out we will become like the simple, brainwashed, characters in Feed. Soon enough people will be calling each other units.
Hence, the feed is controlled by evil corporations and clutter our brains with useless advertisements to make us purchase unwanted items. This begs the questions, what does this mean for the human race? Our species is becoming dumber and less coherent to the world around them. In this time of a technological revolution, we need a societal revolution.
In James Twitchell’s article, “What We Are to Consumers,” he states that “the object of much consumer
In the end, I find that Robert Scholes is correct in his conclusion that commercials hold a certain power, with which they can alter our decisions whether or not to buy a product. Through visual fascination, we are offered images we could never have on our own; through narrativity, we are told what to think and how to think it; and finally through cultural relativity we connect with the rest of the world. When these three forces are combined by advertising, our brains cannot help themselves, we allow ourselves to become brainwashed by corporate America. This is why Robert Scholes feels that Reading a Video Text should be taught in school.
Since the feed is implanted into the brains of the population, there is an inability to escape the control of the feed. When describing the feed, Titus says ‘There 's nothing but the feed telling you, this is the music you heard. This is the music you missed. This is what is new. Listen.” In this description it is observed that the feed is constantly running, forcing you to enjoy an item or idea. This relationship between the feed almost extinguishes consumer’s free thought and providing them an allusion of what they desire. I agree that feed is implanting itself into the populations mind and providing them with thoughts and ideas rather than letting them think for themselves, because throughout the novel, the population is constantly changing its appearance and clothes to match the new trends arising, providing more money for the corporations which created the feed. Furthermore, the feed often distracts a person from their surrounding and fills their minds with marketing. When Titus first saw Violet, he said “Her face, it was like, I don 't know, it was beautiful. It just, it wasn 't the way--I guess it wasn 't just the way it looked like, but also how she was standing. With her arm. I just started at her. I was getting some meg feed on the food bar and the pot stickers were really cheap.” Even crucial moments, the feed is there to nudge Titus and
It is capable of keeping track of everything they do, and is customized to fit their needs and interests. However, despite the fact that it can have some benefits, or even convenience, it is essentially a nuisance and has created a non-human lifestyle. In the novel, the main character Titus mentions the feed when he says, “but the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are…of course, everyone is like, da da da, evil corporations, oh they’re so bad, we all say that, and we all know they control everything. I mean, it’s not great, because who knows what evil shit they’re up to. Everyone feels bad about that. But they’re the only way to get all this stuff, and it’s no good getting pissy about it, because they’re still going to control everything whether you like it or not” (page 48-49). This is one of the most important quotes in the novel, because it sheds light on the overall idea of this power the corporations have over everyone. It is obvious that they accept the feed for the convenience it brings to them, and without it they have no other way to get access to anything they need, but they truly wish they
This is seen through Zygmunt Bauman’s ‘seduced’ and ‘repressed’ argument. Bauman (1988) cited in Hetherington and Harvard (2014), stated that people in contemporary western societies can be divided into two groups of consumers, these groups are the ‘seduced’ and ‘repressed’ Bauman claims that we now live in a consumer society and no longer live in an industrial society – but that society is still not equal, just as it was not equal in the past, however, he believes the types of inequality and freedom in consumer society differ from what was before (Hetherington and Harvard, 2014, p.125). Bauman’s seduced is defined as being those who can participate in the current consumer society, this also included individuals who are seen as valued
Everyone is in a consumer’s hypnosis, even if you think you are not. When you go to a store and pick one brand over the other, you are now under their spell. The spell/ hypnosis is how companies get you to buy there things over other companies and keep you hooked. Either through commercials or offering something that you think will make your life better by what they tell you. For example, you go to the store and you need to buy water, once you get to the lane and look, there is 10 different types of water you can buy. You go pick one either because the picture is better or you seen the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult You’re in” and Benoit Denizet-Lewis writer of “ The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. They both talk about similar topics that go hand and hand with each other, they talk about the consumers “Dream”, how companies recruit the consumers, who cult members really are, how people are forced to wear something they don’t want, and about slackers.
Bauman, Z, (1988) cited in Hetherington K, and Harvard C.(eds) (2014, pg.126,142). He further claims, “This is the characteristic pattern of inequality in our contemporary consumer society one that contrasts with the lines of class and occupational status that characterised the major cleavages in Industrial society”. Bauman, Z, (1988) cited in Alan, J. (2014 pg. 275). Moreover, consumerism encourages people to consume creating their own identities, replacing Identities centred on production and work. Furthermore, Hayek in the ‘Ordering Lives Strand’ claims “The market should be free of political intervention allowing individuals to be free to pursue their own interests” Hayek, F.A. (1976). cited in Clarke, J. (2014 pg.380). However, Allen. claims “The ability to ‘buy into’ a particular lifestyle actively excludes others from it on the basis of lack of income and those unable to do so will be seen as unworthy or inadequate” (Allen, J. 2014 P. 278). Thus constraints can be seen placed on people through lack of income, turning differences into inequalities with evidence indicating that ‘People’s values, beliefs and status are now shaped by ‘Consuming’ rather than as in Industrial times by work, politics and religion’, (The Open University, 2016). Therefore, differences which turn into inequalities are as predominant in today’s consumer society as they were in our industrial
Today, modern technology has changed our way of life in many different ways. We spend most of our time staring into our phones and do not realize our surroundings. According to Jean Twenge, the author of “ Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation”, ninety-two percent of teens report going online at least once a day, and fifty-six percent admit they go online several times a day. This may sound unrealistic but why do we spend so much time on social media? In “ Our Minds Can Be Hijacked”, an article by Paul Lewis, Lewis interviews Google, Twitter, and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive and demonstrates how we can prevent ourselves from being harmed by it. I believe companies are partially responsible for creating addiction
Everything we are surrounded by controls our life in some type of way. Have you ever noticed that one day you are talking about a certain place or item and once you go online you see a lot of ads for that exact thing you were talking about? In a article CBS News says “Some people can't shake the feeling that their phones may be picking up their conversations, even when they're not making a call, especially if you're getting online ads for things you never searched for online. It is possible, experts say.” Big companies these ads in your head persuading you to buy the product is a way of controlling your actions.
The author sees medias of all kind (television, newspapers, the Internet...) as covering a negative role especially in the United States, where they extend the values of the ruling class to all other social groups, while creating and broadcasting a negative image of the poor as parasites, predators exploiting the resources provided by the wealthy because of their laziness. Widespread embrace of 'hedonistic consumerism' (p.60) by all people is something Hooks sees as the cancer of American society today. It's a system which has tragic consequences both psychologically and behaviourally on the poor as personal value is considered to depend on material ownership. The desire to be wealthy is seen as the only meaningful aspiration, and the failure to satisfy one's material longings triggers psychological torment and
This book report is on the society of the spectacle by guy Debord. It is a theory that our society is dominated by images and characterizes and drives our consumer society. The images we see are seen through various methods such as Advertisements, television and other media outlets along with banners and signs. People in consumerism see images of things for them to buy and they go and but things and the reality that the world makes becomes what they are about. Regardless if the people have the money or not they can get credit and pay for it with money they don’t have. This idea of credit for everyone helps the people with power to attain more money and power. The more technology progresses the easier it becomes to enhance the consumer society and move into new market areas and continue to move forward with the new way of life in American and the world.
Many theorists suggest that consumption is correlated to the identity of an individual, that by purchasing goods from the mass market, it enables us to visibly establish our position within society. This differs from previous times in which a range of factors such as family histories, character and personal achievements played a significant role (Gabriel and Lang, 2006). Instead, there is the idea that the consumer has the ability to gain pleasure over objects, not just solely by the manipulation of objects, but through the degree of control over their meaning. The degree of control is developed and achieved through imagination and provides greater possibilities of pleasure experiences. This suggests that modern consumption can be seen as device that enables individuals to ‘dream’ about the desires they wish to fulfill. (Campbell, 1989: 79) (Cited in Gabirel & Lang, 2006)
Advertisers and corporations are liable for using modern and sophisticated forms of mind control to the extent level of brainwashing consumers, in order to manipulate their choices and their spending habits. Our society is being negatively impacted, by becoming a consumer driven society constantly distracted by overwhelming persuasive advertisements, as opposed to ideal informative advertisements. The most vulnerable and negatively impacted targets of persuasive advertising are the younger, less mature, and/or less knowledgeable and self-directed consumers. Ironically, it was once said “An advertising agency is 85 percent confusion and 15% commission” (Allen). It is quite clear that social benefits are not part of this equation. The harm and severe social related costs far outweigh any economic growth and benefits deemed necessary for advertising and marketing companies.
In the business market, the main and principal key to get profit is by the active consume of a product in the marketplace. Nevertheless, firms have taken advantage of that and have created false needs to consumers. According to Leiss, “The only true need, it would appear, are for nourishment, clothing, and housing.” In other words, he states that people can live without television, internet, IPod, and so forth. But the impact of commercials have made people feel the necessity of something else than food and shelter.