Technology’s advancements have been the topic of the town, and much of the world. It is the advances in computers, phones, and digital devices that better lives and entertainment worlds that is the center of the topic. Yes books are clearly being replaced by electronic readers and iPad screens, but to what extent does society praise the advances in medical technology?
Technology is most thought of for entertainment purposes and will continue to produce products desirable for consumers. In the most recent years advancements in technology has changed the way society works and how people live and communicate. In the article Our Media, Ourselves: Are We Headed For A Matrix? by Bob Mondello, he writes about how the future is perceived to be something barren and most modern in the sense that people will lose their individuality by ridding themselves of the clutter that makes them who they are. He states, “It’s a horror story in which humanity has abandoned all of what makes us human,” when describing how movies tend to view the future.
Mondello continues with the previous statement by describing how it is right to think that future generations will not want what he says is “the accumulated mess of existence.” The future and present alike paint a picture of convenience in having everything one would need at the tips of their fingertips. He even gives an example of a friend who said she no longer has CDs in her house and does not buy the amount of books that she used to. Of course she would buy music online and keep only a minimal amount of books to not take up space that CDs and books use. It is convenient to have what you want with the click of a button. With that said, Mondello claims that people gather things around them to not lose the connections they represent, and the fear is not of having nothing material around someone, but having emptiness inside of someone.
In E.M. Forster’s,The Machine Stops, Forster describes the future of a dystopian society that in which every person is secluded in their own room. Forster states “...though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.” On the surface of things, this quote supports Mondello’s claim. Though her room contained nothing, Vashti had all that she needed at the touch of a button. Vashti was fearful, and to an extent it was brought to the attention of the reader. After the character Vashti was trying to persuade her son to not go to the surface of the earth, Forster writes, “For a moment Vashti felt lonely.” This supports to some extent what Mondello had claimed. Vashti had all that she could want, but was discomforted by the idea that her son would not take her advice. It was not about material items, but about human feelings that had left her feeling lonely.
A comment made about Mondello’s article disagrees with his claim. RodgerDodger1 wrote that it is not the inner feeling of emptiness that gives fear, but the fear that comes from people knowing everything about a person. Surprisingly, The Machine Stops also can support this claim from the reader. In the story Forster writes, “Vashanti’s next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her.” She had been in isolation to talk to one person, her son. Although she had been annoyed at first for him taking up her time, it was a time that she would not be distracted by everything around her. Isolation is something used to keep any personal information from being known.
While both claims made by the writer Bob Mondello and the reader of his article are different, they can both be qualified by using different parts from The Machine Stops.
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