The Impact Of Technology In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

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Through the dystopia of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury addresses the impact of technology on society. Meaningful human interaction is lost in the daily lives of the characters in Fahrenheit 451 due to the infiltration of technology into everyday life. Instead of talking to their friends and families, the characters interact with subjects on their screens and call them their “family”. Mildred is the epitome of a citizen from Fahrenheit 451’s community. She has been so brainwashed by the constant stream of information from the media that she cannot remember moments from her life, such as when she met Montag. The internet and television has become a colossal element impacting contemporary society by reducing human interaction. Everywhere, people …show more content…
Television can transport a person to another country without them needing to leave their couch. It can feature exotic animals and plants from deserts to tropical rainforests without the audience needing to worry about deadly viruses or dehydration. Television can also allow people to experience the fake, over-exaggerated lives of celebrities. As Anna Quindlen, an American writer, says, “Reality television is the 21st century equivalent of astronaut food: just point and click, and it’s as though you’re really alive”. Instead of living their own lives people can live other people’s lives and experience their joy, sadness, and drama without the risk of being hurt themselves. Ordinary people can interact with the fake lives of reality television stars on a screen instead of talking to their own friends and families. This is wrong because people need to experience failure, success, and adventure to grow as a person. The television is limiting the experiences needed for a person to become an individual with a distinct personality and unique ideas. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury illustrated a room of screens where people can interact with a “family” on the screen instead of their own. Bradbury, in 1950, asserted that people would use screens as a shield against real emotions that could cause pain and now in contemporary society we can see his prediction becoming a reality. People are glued to their phones …show more content…
It also allows people to have a seemingly unending access to all types of information about science, mathematics, and so much more. However, internet obsession has taken over American culture; internet usage begins the moment people wake up. Some people check their emails and social media before they even get out of bed. The average American spends “10 hours and 39 minutes each day consuming media” (Howard). Humans are creatures of habit, and therefore frequent the same few websites often. This leads to a limited worldview and inflicts bias into their only stream of information. Their opinions are never challenged because the websites they browse are likely to agree with their views.
In many ways, the society of Fahrenheit 451 is similar to contemporary society apropos to the ways technology in the media can influence and control people’s lives and opinions. With the increase of technology, there are more ways to be entertained without having to interact with others. In 1950, Bradbury portrayed a dystopia that was filled with censorship and ignorance which reflects today’s society in a worrying number of ways. If Bradbury’s predictions are accurate, then our society is on a path to becoming so reliant on technology that in the future, society will be able to be controlled through
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