"Feed" by M.T. Anderson

308 pages

In the futuristic world in which "Feed" takes place, people connect to the Internet (they don't call it that, but that's what it seems to be, for all intents and purposes) via digital chips implanted in their brains. Almost any information imaginable is accessible with a simple thought, and consumerism has reached new levels due to the ability to make purchases just by thinking and the constant bombardment of peoples' minds with advertisements. Things have always been good for Titus and his friends, but that all changes with what was supposed to be a low-key trip to the moon during Spring Break. There they run across a crazy hacker who makes all of their feeds malfunction, giving them a glimpse of life without the feed. And, on the same night, Titus meets Violet, a beautiful girl who has a big problem that makes Titus realize that the feed--along with many other parts of the society he knows and loves--has some big drawbacks.

It took me a while to get into this book due to all the slang words Anderson made up. It makes sense that in the future people will talk differently than we do, but having so much futuristic jargon this story still bugged me because I had to focus more on figuring out what words meant instead of the story itself. Still, I did really get sucked in after a few chapters. I didn't particularly care for most of the characters because I thought they were selfish and didn't seem to grow or change their attitudes as much as they should have. However, I did like Violet. She's caught between her poor upbringing and her new rich friends in a world where the digital divide is bigger than ever. In the story, about 30% of Americans don't have feeds. Violet's family had almost no chance of getting out of poverty because her parents couldn't compete for good jobs when the majority of people had instant access to information that they did not have. This definitely got me thinking about our society and how the gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and how technology affects this. The story also made me think about the effect of technology on Americans in general: decreased attention spans; the constant need to be engaged with a digital device; isolation due to lack of human contact; and more. And, of course, consumerism is a big issue here. The ability of the feed to categorize individuals' desires and do such effective targeted marketing is pretty creepy, and it creates a nation of people who almost blindly consume whatever the feed puts in their minds. Another scenario that serves as a warning about the rapid pace at which new technology is developing and how adoringly it is embraced. In sum, I didn't care for the actual plot of "Feed" very much, but because the setting held my interest and gave me lots of food for thought, I thought it was definitely worth reading.