Titus is a a typical teen. He lives with his parents and annoying younger brother, likes to hang out with his friends, and is always looking for something exciting to do. During Spring Break, he and his friends decide to go to the Moon. That’s right – the Moon. Titus lives in a technologically advanced future where people cruise around in “upcars” and have chip implants for the Feed. The Feed is great. It allows the government and advertisers to learn everything about you so they can tell you what you want. It allows you to access information instantly making school basically worthless since everyone already “knows” everything. Titus can’t imagine a better life.
When Titus meets Violet on the Moon he is instantly attracted to her. Violet is very different from all the other girls he knows who only spend their time watching out for the hourly hair style trends and following the story of their favorite show Oh, Wow, Thing. Violet is great, but their relationship doesn’t get off to a good start. At a dance club on the Moon, Titus, Violet, and many others’ Feeds are hacked. They end up spending several days in the hospital for repairs. What Titus doesn’t find out until much later is, Violet’s feed was seriously damaged and most likely can’t be repaired.
M.T. Anderson paints a grim picture of what can happen if a society relies completely on technology. The ease and convenience of instant knowledge from the Feed is to us like searching Google is to our Grandparents. While advertisers constantly bombard people with special offers and great deals in the book, we are rarely without banner ads on the websites we visit. The Feed monitors the purchases of people to better recommend future products. Amazon and Facebook do the same thing in order to recommend things to us. We continually want better and faster. Soon we’ll be so reliant that we won’t be able to do without. Just think. Regular cell phones that don’t require data plans are already becoming harder and harder to find. Soon, even great granny who only needs a cell phone for emergencies will be required to pay $30 for a Smart Phone data plan she’ll never use.
FEED is a book not only about the dangers of complete reliance on technology. It also covers topics such as peer pressure and first love. Titus faces many of the same issues teens of today face, even though he lives in a world where you can take a vacation on the Moon.
I’ve read this book three times. Twice in print and once I listened to the audio version. The audio book is fantastic because it provides the reader with a taste of the Feed. Scattered throughout the book you get to hear advertisements and special news reports about issues the government is facing during the course of this story.
Sexual Content= None
Language Content= Quite a bit
Violence Content= None
Feed is definitely one of my favorite audiobooks. I find myself listening to it over and over again. I liked that your review also talked about how society really could become reliant on technology as well as the story line.
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