Many people try to predict what the future will be like or how the lives of future generations will change compared to their present lives. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, predicts the future of society based on observations that he was already noticing at the time he wrote this novel. A big theme is technology and how it will affect people of the future and even the present. Bradbury feels that technology will have a negative impact on society by creating distance between relationships, changing the way people think, and making everyone selfish, indifferent, and emotionless.
A big problem is the distance between everyone that technology creates. People become so engaged in their devices that they don’t even pay attention to what …show more content…
As people become more and more engaged in their technology, they lose focus on life and their own thinking processes. Montag isn’t the only one who realizes this though, as does an old man named Faber. The two men discuss the changes technology has brought to their society. When the topic of thinking in relation to technology comes up, Faber says, “The televisor is ‘real.’ It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. it rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, ‘What nonsense!’” (Bradbury 84). People are becoming so attached to the technology that it is even starting to do their thinking for them. Technology sends so much stimulation to the mind that a person doesn’t have time to think about what they are sensing. Instead of making their own thoughts, people just assume what their technology is saying is the right thing. Continuing their conversation, Faber also says “You play God to it [technology]. But who has ever torn himself from the claw that encloses you when you drop a seed in a TV parlor? It grows you any shape it wishes! It is an environment as real as the world. It becomes and is the truth. Books can be beaten down with reason.” (Bradbury 84). Similar to the first quote about technology changing the way people think, Faber is saying that in comparison to books, technology gives a person …show more content…
In a way, everyone is starting to become emotionless ‘robots’. As people become more engrossed by their electronics and other devices, they are so used to not talking to people that they often forget how to even feel for others. Everyone loses their empathy because their one main focus is either themselves or the technology surrounding them. They can be described as robots because they are all the same, emotionless, and even selfish, people. The love between family and friends is now gone because everyone is so preoccupied and they don’t have time for others. In Fahrenheit 451, a girl named Clarisse McClellan often talks about how people don’t care about others and the world around them. While talking to Montag, she notices that he isn’t like the others because he actually listens to her and cares about what she is saying. “You’re not like the others. I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The others would never do that. The others would walk off and leave me talking. Or threaten me. No one has time for anyone else.” (Bradbury 23). Most people wouldn’t care about what a random girl says to them because they have better stuff to do, just as Clarisse said. If what they’re hearing isn’t related to them in some way then they just don’t care and ignore what the person is saying. Time is also something that Clarisse brought up; she says no one has time for each other but in reality they
A big problem is the distance between everyone that technology creates. People become so engaged in their devices that they don’t even pay attention to what …show more content…
As people become more and more engaged in their technology, they lose focus on life and their own thinking processes. Montag isn’t the only one who realizes this though, as does an old man named Faber. The two men discuss the changes technology has brought to their society. When the topic of thinking in relation to technology comes up, Faber says, “The televisor is ‘real.’ It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. it rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, ‘What nonsense!’” (Bradbury 84). People are becoming so attached to the technology that it is even starting to do their thinking for them. Technology sends so much stimulation to the mind that a person doesn’t have time to think about what they are sensing. Instead of making their own thoughts, people just assume what their technology is saying is the right thing. Continuing their conversation, Faber also says “You play God to it [technology]. But who has ever torn himself from the claw that encloses you when you drop a seed in a TV parlor? It grows you any shape it wishes! It is an environment as real as the world. It becomes and is the truth. Books can be beaten down with reason.” (Bradbury 84). Similar to the first quote about technology changing the way people think, Faber is saying that in comparison to books, technology gives a person …show more content…
In a way, everyone is starting to become emotionless ‘robots’. As people become more engrossed by their electronics and other devices, they are so used to not talking to people that they often forget how to even feel for others. Everyone loses their empathy because their one main focus is either themselves or the technology surrounding them. They can be described as robots because they are all the same, emotionless, and even selfish, people. The love between family and friends is now gone because everyone is so preoccupied and they don’t have time for others. In Fahrenheit 451, a girl named Clarisse McClellan often talks about how people don’t care about others and the world around them. While talking to Montag, she notices that he isn’t like the others because he actually listens to her and cares about what she is saying. “You’re not like the others. I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The others would never do that. The others would walk off and leave me talking. Or threaten me. No one has time for anyone else.” (Bradbury 23). Most people wouldn’t care about what a random girl says to them because they have better stuff to do, just as Clarisse said. If what they’re hearing isn’t related to them in some way then they just don’t care and ignore what the person is saying. Time is also something that Clarisse brought up; she says no one has time for each other but in reality they