How Does the Novel Feed Relate to my Life as a Young Adult?
Diane Cloutier
Nipissing University
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In September 2012, screens around Nipissing University flash "What's in your head?", and my
sarcastic answer to this question is my brain! Then, my ORGS1136: Organizational Behaviour professor
assigns a group essay on the common book Feed by M.T. Anderson. She warns, "the first forty pages are
a challenge to read because the characters speak differently." While actively listening to her warning, I
examine, excitedly, the yellow head on the cover, and I ask myself, "What kind of book is this?" Upon my
arrival at home, I carefully store, after a short day of learning, the book on a shelf in my tidy apartment.
After three days of productivity, I finally pick up the book from its shelf, also known as the pile of clothes
on the floor, and I keenly begin to read. "The result?" you ask. I was left with the question: How does
this book relate to my life as a young adult?
Throughout the novel, the author describes how the life of Titus, the main character, is driven
by corporations and media through his feed, an implanted computer chip in his head (Anderson 47); the
story made me think of how corporate power influences my life through the internet. In reality and in
the Feed, companies monitor buying trends from online shoppers and customize advertisements to sell
items that matches their interests. Titus, for instance, reveals how the feed, sells items tailored to his
interests by creating a customer profile with programs such as Feedlink, OnFeed, and American
Feedware (Anderson 48). Identically to the feed, the program AdChoices customizes advertisements in
my Hotmail account, Google tracks my online searches, and Facebook personalizes advertisements
according to my "like" pages. However, just like Violet, Titus' girlfriend, who opposes personalized
advertising on the feed by "creating a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it"
(Anderson 98), I can resist corporate influences by un-ticking the tiny, hidden permission box in my
online accounts that allows personalized advertising. So, I, like the corporations, can use the internet as
a tool in overcoming corporate power if I think critically about the information presented to me by this
media outlet. Titus mentions the feed can "help you make buying decisions that are hard" (Anderson
48); his description of these decisions are in the context of impulse shopping. However, the internet can
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be used to pressure corporations if the public, like me, made purchases by comparing prices and
products on retailer websites such as Best Buy. Finally, corporate power can be defeated by the old
cliché of denying my urge to buy items impulsively and avoiding unnecessary purchases, for, again,
corporations hold only as much power as the public feeds into it. In the Feed, for instance, Violet resists
the urge to buy products constantly advertised by the feed (Anderson 247). In today's society, the public
could also pressure corporations by refusing to buy a lot of the items advertised online. So, the Feed
demonstrates that our society, as whole, can overcome corporate power if people, like Titus and I, begin
to question the information presented by corporations (Anderson 2013).
In addition to corporate influences, consumerism has health and social impacts on my life when
I do not use critical thinking in regards to food purchases and peer pressure. Anderson, during his
interview at Nipissing University, asked the students to think of how items are disposed when they, to
us, become obsolete (Anderson 2013). It appears, in Feed, the planet is so polluted by the disposal of
obsolete items that corporations have resorted to creating artificial trademarked clouds (Anderson 131),
cutting down trees to build air factories (Anderson 125), laminating whales which allows them to survive
in the polluted sea (Anderson 280), and requiring citizens to wear orange suits near the sea (Anderson
179). As a result of this pollution, Titus's mother loses so much skin her teeth are seen when her mouth
is closed (Anderson 284). So, consumerism is negatively affecting the health of the Feed society likely
due to poor nutrition caused by polluted crops and animals. Similar to the Feed society, my beef is
polluted by farmers injecting beef cattle with growth hormonal promoters (Health Canada 2013), my
fast food meal is filled with sodium (Health Canada 2013), and my fish is rich in mercury because of
water pollution (HealthLink 2013). If I consume, like many individuals, these foods on a regular basis,
and combine this diet with a sedentary lifestyle, I am contributing to the rise of the global obesity
epidemic (WHO 2013). So, as previously mentioned, I have the power, as a consumer, to moderate my
consumption of meat and fast food, and use the internet to improve my health by searching for healthy
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recipes. In addition to health, my consumption of certain products, like it or not, does define my social
status in society. Violet, in the Feed, is an example of social rejection because of her lower-middle class
lifestyle (Anderson 107), her knowledge of life before the feed (Anderson 65;78), and her late implant
of the feed (Anderson 112). As a result, she fights the feed and corrects people for which she is, at times,
viewed as a snob. When she attends dinner, with Titus's family, she voices that trees produce air, so
trees should not be cut to build air factories (Anderson 125). Titus's father views Violet's remark as
snotty (Anderson 125). In reality, not having a computer would most likely cause me to be socially
rejected at work and at school because the majority of people own and use computers. So, following
certain trends such as owning and using a computer, like the feed, is difficult to resist when my
paycheque depends on my ability to keep up with technology; however, just like Violet, I must still
question the information coming from the media through technology. In all, consumerism, without
critical thinking, can have health and social implications on my life.
On top of corporate power, health, and social implications, the feed, like the internet, allows its
users to connect in different ways; as a result, I question how corporations affect my communication
skills via the internet. Instant messaging, e-mail attachments, video chats, and online photos are a visual
way of communicating compared to describing an experience verbally. Titus, for example, experiences
and sees Violet's declining state of health when she falls down the stairs in a video clip she recorded at
the time. He states,
"I was Violet, walking down the stairs in her house...Suddenly I couldn't move my legs, I couldn't
even scream, I just tried to grab onto the banister. I was falling backward. I hit the walls with my
hand as hard as possible and then my face hit the carpet on the stair and I was sliding down on
my butt. The rug on each stair was burning the side of my face, it was like underwater"
(Anderson 245).
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In reality, I can, quickly upload photos and videos to websites like YouTube and Facebook, and discuss
them with my friends on instant messaging programs. The advantage of social networking is memories
can be shared instantly, and I can connect with anyone in the world. If, however, I buy into social
networking without critical thinking, sharing of memories via the internet can lead to a loss of privacy.
Titus feels a loss of privacy when Violet is sending him all of her childhood memories (Anderson 254). He
states, "she was bombarding me [with information]"; as a result, he deletes everything she sent him
because he has a headache from the information overload (Anderson 254). Video and photo sharing can
also negatively impact my verbal communications skills if I only use videos and photos to describe my
experiences. When Titus and his friends are attacked by a hacker and lose access to their feeds, Loga,
their friend, describes her favourite feedcast Oh! Wow! Thing! through story-telling (Anderson 58). Titus
states, "I never heard Loga tell a story this good before, and she even used her hands and stuff, and her
eyes were vacant like she was seeing some other world, which I guess she was" (Anderson 58). By losing
visual communication such as writing, photos, and videos, Titus suddenly recognizes how a person can
effectively communicate a story verbally. As an avid user of the internet, I can recognize that conversing
face to face with people is important in maintaining my verbal communication skills. In addition to
photo and video sharing, acronyms can hinder the decoding of information. In the Feed, Titus, as it
appears, is illiterate; the feed reads for him. When Violet writes "I came, I saw, I conquered" on a piece
of paper, he can only decode "002110 Goto 013500, 013500 Peek 16388, 236, 013510 Poke 16389,
236", and proper English is referred to as the basic language (Anderson 65). His feed has replaced his
human ability to read as school, which is trademarked, does not teach reading and writing. As in the
Feed, my ability to read can eventually be altered as I often use, in my online conversations, acronyms
such as "gtg" meaning "got to go", "btw" which is "by the way", and "lol" as everyone know is "laugh out
loud." The internet allows for quicker communication between users; however, in the future, it can alter
my literacy skills if corporations decide to fund my education and encourage easy learning like in the
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Feed. Overall, Anderson highlights the consequences of corporate influences on my communication
skills by describing Titus's literacy skills in a world dominated by corporations.
In conclusion, after reading the novel Feed and attending Anderson's interview at Nipissing
University, this novel relates to me, a young adult, on the level of critical thinking. As the author
intended, I was able to relate the story to my daily life by thinking of corporate influences in today's
society and connecting these influences to my health, social life, and communication skills. As a
newfound critical thinker, I now have a different perspective on how corporations and media selectively
reveals information, and, although I am still not a fan of the Feed, the book is now stored on my actual
bookshelf beside my textbooks because I now respect the author's message.
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References
Anderson, M.T. (2002). Feed, 1-299. Massachusetts: Candlewick Press
Healthy Eating: Choose Fish Low in Mercury, Retrieved March 24th, 2013 from
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile68m.stm
Hormonal Growth Promoters, Retrieved March 24th, 2013 from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhpmps/vet/faq/growth_hormones_promoters_croissance_hormonaux_stimulateurs-eng.php
Interview with the Author, Retrieved March 24th, 2013 from http://www.nipissingu.ca/aboutus/CBP/Pages/Interview-with-the-Author.aspx
Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic, Retrieved March 24th, 2013 from
http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/obesity/WHO_TRS_894/en/
Sodium, Retrieved March 24th, 2013 from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/food-aliment/sodiumeng.php