Feed in Pick-a-Shelf

Jun 04, 2017 D.G. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult, audiobook, reviewed

I'm shaken.

After reading this book, I've been revisiting everything about my life: how much time I spend in my iPhone, my values, my self-image. What is me and what is product of advertising? As a marketer, I've always been clear that marketing is a reflection of who we are more than the other way around but as I read this book, I realized the cumulative effect of having all the messages bombard us since we're pretty much in the womb. And even though our brains tells us that today's standards of I'm shaken.

After reading this book, I've been revisiting everything about my life: how much time I spend in my iPhone, my values, my self-image. What is me and what is product of advertising? As a marketer, I've always been clear that marketing is a reflection of who we are more than the other way around but as I read this book, I realized the cumulative effect of having all the messages bombard us since we're pretty much in the womb. And even though our brains tells us that today's standards of beauty - perfect abs, thin thighs, no cellulite, glossy hair - are impossible to reach, there's a still a part of us that wish we could look like that. Totally fucked up!!!

Titus is a teenager in a future where people have the Internet connected to their heads. And it doesn't only provides information, entertainment and of course advertising, it's also intricately connected to their brain, in such a way that if the feed doesn't work, it kills them. The feed is such a necessary part of their lives that they wouldn't consider themselves disconnecting even if they could.

But the braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for, sometimes before you even know what those things are.

The description made it seem as if being disconnected from the feed makes Titus reconsider what having the feed means but it's actually the opposite. Violet, who had the feed installed as a child instead of at birth like the others, is the one that wants to be "normal", only worrying about fashion, parties and teenage shenanigans. Yet, she's more aware of the world at large, the consequences of our consumerism society, that the planet is dying, that people are dying in wars or attacks. Titus doesn't want to hear any of this, he wants to continue with his oblivious life and he does. At the end, poor Violet is the one that pays the consequences.

The audiobook production was amazing. The narrative is constantly interrupted by ads, songs, "educational shows", all trying to sell you something, and these are produced like real ads, with that fake enthusiasm that's so ubiquitous in radio. It really brought home what this feed was about and how it must have felt to be continuous bombarded with advertising, literally in your head.

David Aaron Baker, the narrator, was also excellent. All the teenagers had this bored valley voice, totally how you know they must have sounded.

Feed wasn't a comfortable book to read but so worth it. It's made me realize that I have to make some changes in my life if I don't want the "feed" to take over my life. ...more

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Apr 28, 2008 Misty rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2008, juvenile-ya, sci_fi-fantasy, dystopia-postapocalyptic

I read this book as the first in what I intended to be a "best of sci-fi summer," and though I don't know if I will stick to that, this was a good first book. It is interesting in its use of language, which is not dumbed-down per se, but is simplified to the logical conclusion, full of all those trendy little shortenings of words that keep bastardizing language until it conveys nothing (there is a quote in there somewhere, I think from Jane Austen or Margaret Atwood -- I know, how different coul ...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Cora rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, dystopia, award-winner, american-author, young-adult, advertising

In this young adult novel, Titus and his friends are bored and looking for a fun time. They decide to go to the moon for spring break. While there Titus meets Violet, a girl that who is different from anyone else he knows. This is a dystopian novel where everyone has a computer chip in their brain (The Feed) that sends them information, advertisements, chat from friends (kind of like the internet inside your brain). Like many dystopian novels, the instant gratification from the Feed shields citi ...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Angela Randall rated it really liked it

Shelves: ange-recommends, fiction, we-own, sci-fi, dystopian, young-adult, internet-studies, 2000-2009, 21st-century, read-2011

Feed was really not too far a stretch from where we are today. People already rely on computer-generated recommendations for purchases, some people would kill to have always-on internet in their heads and it's not hard to see how quickly SchoolTM could be implemented in a society where all you need to be able to do in your life is know how to make purchases effectively.

As for criticism of the book, there were a few sub-plots which kind of drifted off into nothingness. Also, the narration was gi ...more

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Mar 06, 2009 Luann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, 2010, science-fiction, dystopia

This was scary! Scary in how recognizable the world M.T. Anderson created felt - and how much I wouldn't want to live in it! This is definitely a book that makes you think. In the world of Feed, nearly everyone (everyone you meet in the book) has access to the "feed" through a brain implant. The feed is like our internet and television and also allows for chatting and ads to be fed directly into your brain. Of course this is supposed to allow everyone to be immediately "smart" with instant acces ...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Tara rated it liked it

Shelves: hive-challenge

Though it started off a bit slow, I did get sucked into the relationship of Violet and Titus. It portrays a future where your thoughts and lifestyle are soon not your own. It was a hard future to look at. There were parts that were almost scary because the idea was not as far-fetched as it once could have been.
Anderson gives a social commentary of a word where technology is now embedded into our very being. Where those who cannot afford or do not want to conform to the newest technology are lef ...more

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