"Feed" BLOG#2

-Respond to the following passage: "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up to with...it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to...they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you're supposedly like. They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (p.80-81). Relate this to marketing tactics in today's society. What is your "type?" What ads would you get if you had feed?" How often would you "chat" if you had the "feed?" How would "chatting" affect modern-day communications?

How this relates to marketing tactics today is that they try and appeal to everyone and anyone who they can get to buy their products that they are selling. I would say my type has got to be either really sporty or plain and simple. The ads I would get if I had feed would be the most latest music releases along with the newest trends and styles. To be honest, if I did have feed; I would "chat" about most of my day till I get tired out. How "chatting" would affect modern-day communications is if everyone were to make "chatting" a habit then talking face to face in person wouldn't be normal anymore. Everyone would be so used to "chatting" through their feed instead of face to face that interacting in reality would be so hard just to do.

-Respond to Titus' reaction to his parents buying him an upcar (p.96-97)

Titus' reaction to his parents buying him an upcar made him forget about everything completely that's been bothering him in that very point in time. He was very happy and excited to take Violet out once he had got his car. In my opinion, If my parents told me that they were going to buy me a car, I would also feel that same happiness that Titus did; instead I don't have a permit or license actually. This is Titus' reaction, "Oh, god!" "Oh, god! Oh, Mom- Dad-this is-oh, shit! Holy shit! Are you kidding! Your the best mom and dad ever!" (p.118) Titus was completely speechless, and that is my evidence for saying at the time he thought of none of his worries but the car that he would be getting from his parents... because they believe he was brave and have been going through such hard times.

-In a consumeristic society, once things have outlived their usefulness, they tend to be discarded. How might this attitude affect the way people interact with one another? How might it affect the way they think of the past?

How might this attitude affect the way people interact with one another is that being in a relationship wouldn't mean as much anymore as it did in the past. Soon enough, relastionships will just come and go because of the way they interact. How it may affect the way they think of the past is that whatever becomes useless will be discarded and just left behind in the past because people start to believe there is no reason keeping old ways in the past because of new ways to interact, to think, to do in a regular basis.

"Feed" BLOG#1

-"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." How does this sentence set up the novel?

This sentence sets up the novel in the future because if your sane, no one on this earth in this time does to the moon just to have fun and say it would suck. The teenagers that are saying this are also very spoiled and bratty. Just because it's their Spring Break, they go to the moon with the intentions of drinking, getting high, and dance to have fun. Another thing this sentence sets up the novel by showing that the teenagers dod get what they want. A character, Violet said in the story was, "When you have the feed all your life, you're brought up to not think about things." [Pg. 113] The teenagers thinks of their desires only, not even knowing how things were different back then, and the difference now in their time.

-Why do you think the author whose the names he did-- Titus, Link, Violet, and so on--for his characters? What might their names say about the world they live in?

I think the author chose the characters names like: Titus, Link, Violet, and so on-- because he's setting the characters names to seem like it's futuristic; like in the future. What it says about the world is that it's changed alot from the past and how it's more developed. I also believe this because the author could of really used just any names but he chose to upgrade the names instead, since the setting of the book is futuristic and all. For example: Mary is a common old name. (Like the virgin Mary) ---See the difference.

-This book is dedicated, "To all those who resist the feed." What exactly is the feed? What does it mean to resist the feed? Is there anything similar today, and in what ways might you (or people you know) resist the feed? What are the advantages or disadvantages of having a feed?

I believe that when the author wrote, "To all those who resist the feed," [M. T. Anderson], he meant feed as all of consumerism. What it means to resist the feed is to not always be gullable and haveing to always keep up with all the latest trends and music e.t.c. Knowing your limits and still knowing you are your own person/individual and that is what makes everyone unique. Even with all the flaws and different desires, wishes, and motivation in life. If we were all alike, there would be nothing that stands out at all about each and every one of us. I truly believe that people today who resists the feed has got to be those who really stays true to thyself. Yeah, of course we've all atleast went by the feed atleast once or so, but it's what we stand for that really shows the best of us. We have our own opinions and minds of our own. The advantages of feed is that you get to lay back and let it do all the work for you. We start to not even think of anything at all; just nothing. The disadvantages has got to be having to still live and make every little mistake on the way, overcoming all obstacles; Falling and still being able to rise in the end. This is what makes life worth awhile. I know it's possible though, because having to really live by feed is alot of money; surely not everyone has the money to live by all of consumerism with it's latest trends, songs, hair styles, e.t.c. It makes us human and who we are by knowing how to cope with what we get. "Taking what you get, and be grateful."