My Personal Response

I personally enjoyed reading Feed very much. In this twenty-fifth century representation of America, Anderson illustrates a scary depiction of what society could truly come to. We are constantly using means to become even more connected on the web, and as these digital technologies become more prevalent in our lives so too does the digital media corporations' control of our lives. While we are certainly not plugged in to the network in such a manner as those with the "feed", this novel makes the reader ask themselves, "how much longer until we are?" With recent inventions such as Google Glass, we are certainly on the path to becoming connected at all times. I can only hope that society holds on to the value of individualism, and stops the current trend toward consumerism and networked control. This is a great book for any future student in LIS 201, as well as anyone else with an open mind and a general distrust toward internet corporations.

Summary of Feed

               M.T. Anderson's Feed was republished in 2012 by Candlewick Press. This novel tells a futuristic, fictional portrayal of twenty-fifth century America. It extends upon the modern-day networked society that we live in today, and poses the story of a world in which 73% of the American population has a device called the "feed" implanted in their brains, connecting them directly to the "feednet" (the story's parallel to the internet) at all times. The citizens of this dystopian society are thus constantly plugged in to the global network; a sacrifice that comes with their personal privacy being often and easily compromised. The "feed" not only provides information to those connected, but it collects information upon the users just like our internet of today does. Users of the feed allow their thoughts, feelings, and emotions to be accessed by the large marketing corporations that control the feed, and ultimately the world, through what Anderson calls "data mining": the process in which the large, powerful marketing corporations controlling the feednet collect information on citizens to create the most in-depth consumer profiles upon them possible, thus resulting in more effective advertising by the corporations and ultimately greater profit. These corporations in Feed grow to become the greatest societal power in the world, and while the story is fictional and future-based, the themes correlate to societal tendencies of today. Consumerism is at the core of societal values, while environmentalism is a forgotten practice. The corporate-driven world depicted in Feed is ecologically devastated, with literacy rates and education sharply declining as well. All aspects of society are controlled by large marketing corporations, and the very ability to think for oneself is slowly disappearing as a result of this networked dystopia.
            Caught up in this depressing society are a group of teenagers which Anderson frames his story around. These teenagers had been  connected to the feed their entire lives, but while taking a spring-break trip to the moon (a common travel destination of the twenty-fifth century) their feeds are hacked by an anti-feed hacker and the pain of disconnectedness is felt for the first time. The inability to think independently, the unnerving silence, and the physically-destructive damages associated with a feed malfunctioning are avoided for most of this group of teens, as their feeds are restored relatively quickly. However, for the two main characters -- Titus and Violet -- their life is forever changed by the malfunction. As the two are entangled in a brilliant romantic thriller, Violet is slowly dying as a result of the malfunction. She and Titus band together to fight back against corporate control, consumerism, and the digital divide in this thrilling novel. The social views and general overindulgence in technology that we see in society today are represented throughout this novel, as M. T. Anderson truly makes the reader question their trust in the internet and today's network society.