Feed

Anderson, M. T.. (2002). Feed. Candlewick Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. Titus is part of the Feed, a neurologically implanted connection to all outlets of media and consumerism. 3/4^th  of all of America are connected to the feed. It is on the Moon for short trip with friends that he meets Violet who was connected to the feed latter in life. A hacker hacks their feed causing them to go with out for a short period. While it is tempting to believe that Titus will overcome the feed and stick it out with Violet while she deteriorates, even possibly avenge her, he does not. He quickly reabsorbs into the feed.  I was uncomfortable with this book because even though it is a futuristic setting, it his close to our current reality with cookies on our computers and marketing being profiled to fit us. This s a great book for tackling what it means to fit in and the price we pay for conformity. It might be a stretch but I wonder about Titus' mental development through out this book. I feel that the feed has dumbed them all down to almost a simple concrete thinking and not allowing them to reach analysis in the formal operational thinking of Piaget's theory.