What could happen to us in a world where we no longer need to think? Where people live their daily lives uber-connected to the internet and everything it has to offer- encyclopedias of knowledge a split-second away, instant communication capabilities, worlds of information and shopping- complete with pop-up ads tailored to your desires? And what could happen if the thing connecting you to this infinite world malfunctioned?
M.T. Anderson’s Feed tackles these issues. In a future world, people live with the Feed, a chip implanted into their brains that connects them to the internet on steroids. Everything they do, shop, hang out with friends, go to SchoolTM, even vital life functions, goes through the Feed and is monitored by the corporations that own FeedNet. When typical teenager Titus meets Violet, a girl who cares about what is going on in the world beyond her Feed, he is intrigued. And when Violet decides to fight the Feed, Titus is forced to question his own life and reliance on the Feed.
This is a masterful book. Every detail is so clearly thought out, from the slang to the glimpses of the world beyond Titus and his friends, a world that is more imperfect than perfect, not that Titus would notice. It is a glimpse at the power of consumerism, the manipulative power of corporations, and the tragic apathy of many young people towards life beyond their own desires. Feed succeeds at pulling the reader out of that apathy, especially when some of the technology so omnipresent in the book is eerily reminiscent of so much of what is evolving from the internet now…
- Posted by Erin