Feed

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

-M.T. Anderson (Feed)

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Blogger. Imagine all of these things collectively as "the Feed." Now imagine that implanted in your brain, constantly sending and receiving messages at will. Your will?

That depends.

In this world that M.T. Anderson creates in Feed, there is a tiny computer chip that is implanted in 73% of Americans. Most parents opt to implant it when their children are young and as they grow the Feed takes over most of the brain's functions. They never learn to think but only receive what the Feed sends them, advertisements based on their recent activity (from recent purchases to real life events). The longer you've had a Feed, the more it rules your life and even your everyday decisions.

Every Feed user has a profile, one that is monitored and updated by the corporations responsible for this device. Their control is so extensive that they can tap into peoples' personal thoughts. Pop-up ads have also woven their irritating noises and bright colors into this mental existence. Hackers have become life threatening, with the ability to disrupt thought process and brain function.

"The natural world is so adaptable...So adaptable you wonder what's natural." (Feed)

Just a word about the environment. The whales swim around wrapped in plastic bubbles because the waters they live in have become too acidic to support life. Clouds no longer naturally form and so the skies are filled with Clouds™. Everything is artificial.

"You need the noise of your friends in space." (Feed)

I originally started thinking of this a couple weeks ago. I have begun to notice how a scene quite similar to this is starting to play out on my own computer screen. At the beginning of the semester after looking up cheap textbooks I started receiving a plethora of ads about the cheapest textbook websites. Later on I was searching for reviews on a pair of skis I own and again, ads for skis. This happened off and on, things I searched around for began popping up everywhere. My browsing whims are coming back with a vengeance. Lately I've been searching for a new duvet cover and my cyber world has exploded with the latest in bed fashions, I no longer have such a desire to change my bed upholstery.

Is this the new price we pay for communication? To stay in touch with the friends that otherwise would be nothing more than fond memories?

There is a simple solution: leave behind the computer, the internet. Go outside and explore the Feed society seems to have left behind. Absorb what the natural world offers your senses; cool breezes, lilting scents of flowers and the warmth of the sun. One would find that the only friends you need are already indelibly fixed into this scenery. Why farm the cyberspace? Go outside and plant a garden. Bring some friends.