"How Yew B Livin?!"

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry."-Thoreau

When you wake up in the morning, what's usually the first thing you do? Mine would be checking my phone or Facebook before I actually go get ready for the day. In between classes, at meals, hanging out with friends, before you go to bed at night; all the while texting or getting on the internet or playing a video game. We have been surrounded by modern technology for so long that we don't quite know how to function without it. I'm currently finding this out as I do the Thoreau challenge. Even before this though, whenever I would run out of minutes on my phone or not have internet connection, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I compared this to how Titus and his friends felt when their feeds were disconnected. But I think there's was as a greater level. Can you imagine seeing and hearing advertisements, shows, conversations right there in your brain everyday then just suddenly having it turned off? You find that you don't know what to do with yourself without it. It's hard to find enjoyment in other things that don't involve technology when you scarcely remember what it was like before. I have been working hard to try to find new things to do. We were asked the question "Would you be able to live like Thoreau did?" and I can honestly say no. Not souly because of the lack of technology, but more because of the lack of human interaction. I would probably start talking to myself after a while and find that I may not be the best company. Something like this though would show us what luxuary we live in with transportation, TV, cellphones, etc.

But when it comes to the stated quote above, I think about people who rely on new technological advances in order to think they are worth anything. In Feed, Titus and his friends are constantly buying new things and changing the way they look just to keep up with everyone else. I think we kind of do the same thing in our society, just at a slower pace. Even those that say that they don't give into consumerism do. It's hard not to. For example, in Feed, Violet's father can't get a job because he didn't have the feed. This is the same as our society today. Most likely you won't be able to get a job if you cannot be contacted on a phone or by email and if you can't work a computer. The same goes for what you wear. I lived in a small town where I graduated with a class of maybe 100. If you didn't dress like everyone else, you were immediantly outcasted. It's hard to be the odd man out, so most people just try to look the part that society desires them to be just so they can pretend that they are like everyone else. When I think of people that try to be "different" my mind immediantly goes to "hipsters". They claim to be different, innovative, and non conformists, but at the same time they look just like the next "hipster". Isn't that a form of conformity?
I honestly wonder what it would be like to live away from modern society and just embrace my thoughts without interruption, but then I admit to myself that I frankly would be bored. I think I might try it someday, just go somewhere quiet and lose myself in my own mind. Maybe I'll discover more about myself. Maybe I'll just go crazy. It's hard to tell, but I think that even if I never do that I can make an impact in this world because I think I know myself pretty well. Everyone will make an impact in the world no matter how small and even if it does involve technology.