Technology Influence On Fahrenheit 451

I remember as a kid there was nothing more enchanting then going home to play video games. Before I knew it I had become enslaved by my video games. Back then I did not realize it but everything I did was influenced by my video games. Just as I didn’t realize the chains video games had tied around my legs, much of society doesn’t realize how they have become tied down and enslaved by technology. Technology really has come far since 1951. In 1951 it was only possible to hypothesize about futuristic technology just as Ray Bradbury did in his book Fahrenheit 451. However, Ray Bradbury would have never imagined the decisive role that technology has had upon children of the 21st century. Internet, video games, and television has a detrimental effect

upon kids ages 6-19 enslaving their minds and causing self-inflicted damage to their physical well being.
The biggest physical concern caused by internet, video games, and television is Obesity. Studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that obesity in children aged 6-11 has increased from 7% percent in 1980 to 18% in 2012. More shockingly enough, obesity rates of children aged 12-19 has tripled since the 1980’s. Obesity rates went from 5% in 1980 to 17.4% in 2012. Thus in the United States nearly 1 in 3 children ages 2 to 19 are overweight or obese. Moreover, Obesity has been linked to cause type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases.
It is conjectured by many researchers that television, internet and video game use can result in decreased metabolic rates, a decrease in physical activity, and an increase in calorie intake due to food advertisements.

Thus a study was conducted to prove this hunch. The research was done by a group of highly skilled doctors of philosophy: Robert C. Whitaker, Jeffrey A. Wright, Margaret s. Pepe, Kristy D. Seidel, and William H. Dietz. The research took place in a laboratory setting. There were 31 subjects; 15 of whom were obese children and 16 normal-weight children. All subjects had two measure of resting energy expenditure obtained; one during rest and the other taken as they watched television. Conclusively the research team concluded in a article called Predicting Obesity in Young Adulthood from Childhood and Parental Obesity that metabolic rates during television viewing was significantly lower compared to the metabolic rate of children at rest. The peculiar conclusion was that children who are obese have a larger decrease in their metabolic rate compared to normal-weight children. After the study concluded the researchers found that their conjecture was correct; screen time is at fault for a decrease in metabolic

rate.
In another multi-country, multiphase, cross sectional study called the international study of asthma and allergies in childhood (ISAAC). The study contained 3 parts. Phase one was a standardized core questionnaire on symptoms of asthma, rhinoconjuctivits and eczema, and included an optional environmental questionnaire (EQ) to collect potential risk factor specific etiological data including height, weight, and television viewing. The results EQ results were then used to find the BMI of every participant. It was then found that the overweight/obese participants have a tendency to watch television more frequently and elongated periods of times compared to normal weight participants. The researchers also found the United States to be the country with the most obesity and not surprisingly the United States spends at least 5 hours a day planted to a television screen (Weinmayr et al).