Let's see, this book is basically mocking every teen. Now first instinct tells us that we should get upset, deny it with all our souls or just ignore the book. Instead of that why not think about it? We know how much time we spend on our knickknacks I think that admitting that we spend at least 2/3 of our day texinging,instant messaging...yada yada yada is where the road block comes in. (See my earlier post "Not AA...")
Feed does touch on many things that we as teens in 2009 do, like disregard our parents, get in crappy relationships, go to parties just because... I could go on for a while. Feed is an allegory for the majority of teens today. Granted there are those who spend their Friday nights reading with their phones off just waiting for mommy and daddy to come home but for the most part the book is spot on.
What's weird about self discovery is that we try to deny it. I mean no one wants to be called dumb and no one wants to be a stereotype but when you have 5 hour conversations that look like this: lol, omg Bobby was so totally looking at you! :-) there might be a problem...
Look in to that
There are ways in which Feed can be false. You can assume the the lives of teens today are not tragic. Most of us are obliviously looking forward to the days to come where we can stare blankly at screens just because we can. Feed is saying that this is the direction that we are going in. Feed is saying that eventually a large dependence on computers and technology will lead us further into stupidity.
Most teens today are not bothered by that. Most people don't see technology as our downfall. Most people see that smoking, overuse of oil and pollution are going to end the world!! But I'm almost sure that technology can lead people to do all of the above. 1. You get frustrated that your phone doesn't work and your ipod is always freezing and you pick up smoking...as a nervous habit. 2. most phones, TV's and computers are made of plastic. 3. eventually you'll throw it out.
"Some say" (see earlier post for the joke) that using technology actually hurts us more than not using it. Lets say you watch TV all day (most of us do) and you're sitting there mindlessly eating (this can happen). Say potato chips out of a plastic bag, you run out of them. So you get up get in your car and drive to the nearest Wal-Mart which is atop a hill, so you get out and walk and you're out of breath (lets say your overweight from all those chips) wasting precious air. You pay and drive back and return to your TV. A month later the bill comes and since you've watched plenty of TV the bill is like 7 pages long. Sounds like just watching TV wastes more resources than getting off your butt and doing something.
Think about it as well. But if a Titus is reading this then...da da da da da
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Jacara,
ReplyDeleteWell-written and daring.
"What's weird about self discovery is that we try to deny it. I mean no one wants to be called dumb and no one wants to be a stereotype but when you have 5 hour conversations that look like this: lol, omg Bobby was so totally looking at you! :-) there might be a problem..."
Great stuff. Hard to do - denying lets us keep our present understandings intact - just add the Revealer to the already large "Big Jerk" category and move on - lots easier than rethinking our whole way of being.
But, and maybe this is crucial, if we conceptualize our lives as not about doing the easy (including denying) but as a process of becoming (including rethinking) then these situations shine as opportunities for development.