April Campagna – book club “Feed”

1. I think the text really wants the reader to think about how influential media and advertising can be. I feel like, to us, it is absolutely absurd to think that one day people will have live “feeds” implanted inside of their brains at birth, but then again, I am sure that if you went back 200 years ago and talk to people about how we live our lives today, they would think a lot of the things we do are just as absurd. I just think the text really wants the reader to consider how technology is today, and how it might change over a long period of time.

2. I actually made a few connections. Take the novel 1984 for example. Although a lot of it seems unrealistic, I actually did a report on just how accurate the novel is to today’s world in terms of privacy. I also have seen a statistic that the average person will see about 300 advertisements a day without even consciously knowing they are seeing (or hearing) them. They fact that this book shows how someone could have a feed of advertisements 24/7 inside their head and just kind of block them out when they need to is kind of like what we do now. By making these connections, I can see just how affected our society is by technology, as well as how much it can help/hurt us.

4. This text is actually really interesting. In a way, I can see how this book portrays the real world that I know, but I can also see how this book is a sort of fantasy world. Because it is set in the far future, the book has the basics of my real world, such as teenagers still acting like teenagers. However, it has the fantasy of the future, illustrating a trip to the moon for a weekend getaway. To the characters, this is their reality, but to me, it is new and very interesting. Although it is hard to imagine a world like the one lay out in the novel, the author does a great job at making it as believable as possible.