Feed MT Anderson
The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. – Phillip K. Dick.
In the book ‘Feed’ by M.T. Anderson, a lot of power and manipulation is shown and that is my topic for this essay. The characters in this book, all have something called a ‘feed’ inside their brains, such as the news feed on Facebook. In this feed, they can interact with each other, see what is happening around them, and several more things, but the feed also controls their way of thinking, their emotions and feelings.
The feed is designed so the people behind it can access everyone’s minds and control them, control their feelings, their emotions, their actions, their way of thinking, etc. The characters on the book also receive several kinds of advertisements and things to do, which they will eventually do and believe because of those advertisements always popping up in their minds or ‘feeds’.
At one point in the story, when Violet and Titus were at the mall, Violet tells him “Everything we do gets thrown into a big calculation. Like they’re watching us right now. They can tell where you’re looking. They want to know what you want.” (Anderson 97) This shows that the company or companies in charge of the feed are always looking over you, they know everything you’re doing, how and when. And this is really creepy.
Another example of the way the characters are manipulated, is when Titus and Violet think that the companies behind the feed tapped into their feeds, causing scary pictures to show up in their minds late at night and waking them up scared. That night, Violet told Titus “Hey – look lively. Someone was just nosing around my feed, checking out my specs and sending me all these images.” (Anderson 153) If at this point, someone would be able to easily access Violet’s feed and control it as he wanted, this meant that the people behind the feed had a lot of power, and that they
In the book ‘Feed’ by M.T. Anderson, a lot of power and manipulation is shown and that is my topic for this essay. The characters in this book, all have something called a ‘feed’ inside their brains, such as the news feed on Facebook. In this feed, they can interact with each other, see what is happening around them, and several more things, but the feed also controls their way of thinking, their emotions and feelings.
The feed is designed so the people behind it can access everyone’s minds and control them, control their feelings, their emotions, their actions, their way of thinking, etc. The characters on the book also receive several kinds of advertisements and things to do, which they will eventually do and believe because of those advertisements always popping up in their minds or ‘feeds’.
At one point in the story, when Violet and Titus were at the mall, Violet tells him “Everything we do gets thrown into a big calculation. Like they’re watching us right now. They can tell where you’re looking. They want to know what you want.” (Anderson 97) This shows that the company or companies in charge of the feed are always looking over you, they know everything you’re doing, how and when. And this is really creepy.
Another example of the way the characters are manipulated, is when Titus and Violet think that the companies behind the feed tapped into their feeds, causing scary pictures to show up in their minds late at night and waking them up scared. That night, Violet told Titus “Hey – look lively. Someone was just nosing around my feed, checking out my specs and sending me all these images.” (Anderson 153) If at this point, someone would be able to easily access Violet’s feed and control it as he wanted, this meant that the people behind the feed had a lot of power, and that they