A Doll, Stove And A Casket?

The most popular thing is today's society is subjecting females to what they are suppose to do and what they are suppose to look like..

“This girlchild was born as usual

and presented dolls that did pee-pee

and miniature GE stoves and irons

and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy..”

Why do girls HAVE to play with dolls?

Why is it that girls have to play with miniature stoves and irons and wear lipstick?

Why is it only essential to girls?

In this society we live in, we are so fixated with making ourself acceptable in another person's eyes but what about your own?

OH i know why, because puberty hits and it sucks it's the moment in time when your body is finding its true self and developing into what it is suppose to be.

Its what's known as becoming a “ Women”

“Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:

You have a great big nose and fat legs…”

Okay, I know what you’re thinking

That's fucked up, a classmate was that blunt to this girl, in front of her face.

Now why is that? Because we allow it. Children reflect their parents/adults that surround them, what they find distasteful and unappealing to them it would sway their child's opinion; and because of that we get a society like this.

“She was healthy, tested intelligent,

possessed strong arms and back,

abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity…”

She had it all, so why was it that the kids were pointing out her appearance rather than point out who she is and her character?

Most of society only cares for what women look like, what they can do in a house but never care for their talents and their potential beyond a kitchen.

Women are so much more better than that.

“She went to and fro apologizing.

Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.”

But WHY is she apologizing?

Why is she apologizing for having a fat nose and thick legs?

These kids make her feel like such an inconvenience, but she’s not. She's human and she has imperfections just like everyone else..

WAIT.. it gets better.

So these kids decide that telling her, her body is not up to par with what it should be, this girl is now told how she should act

“She was advised to play coy,

exhorted to come on hearty,

exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.

Her good nature wore out

like a fan belt.

So she cut off her nose and her legs

and offered them up”

She took all she had and got rid of it all to become someone is she not. She started becoming shy, exercised to fit a standard that her body was not at. Smile even if she did not have a reason too, she forced it because that was what she was “suppose” to do…

But she gave up, she was tired of fitting into this world they wanted her to live in so what better than to just cut off what people hate most about you and act as if it was never there.

Wouldn’t that get them to stop talking?

Stop judging?

Move on with their lives?

Doesn't that alone send a message on its own?

Now I bet you're asking yourself what more can happen to this poor girl..

Ha.. just keep reading…

“In the casket displayed on satin she lay

with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,

a turned-up putty nose,

dressed in a pink and white nightie.

Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.

Consummation at last.

To every woman a happy ending”

By now she’s gone, I mean come on who can handle all that?

Some may even say

“ Well she should have spoke up for herself”

“ She just gave up, who does that?”

“She was weak”

“She was completely over dramatic to have done that”

But come on, suicide is the third leading cause of death in this country and we want to downplay it and make it seem as if its a easy way out?

Fine if you don't believe me read for yourself :

Now you will believe me.

Okay, tell me one thing, if it's so “easy” why haven’t you done it?

Yes, I know pretty harsh but listen

I know why you haven't, it may because you had no reason too or because you realized you have so much to live for.

YOU have so much potential and so did she but NO ONE spoke up for her.

Everyone belittled her and dehumanized her.

They sexualized her and took away her dignity and because of that, because of the people she dealt with, her decided to stop it all for good.

Do not put a standard on someone because they do not reach your ideal.

So speak up. If you see someone going through something, know someone being bullied, DO SOMETHING.

Do not dehumanize one another anymore, be above it all. Be a part of a difference.

Work Sited :

Marge Piercy, Circles
on the Water. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1982
Word Count: 833

Alyssa S

Who's pulling the strings?

Have you ever sat and thought to yourself about all the crazy different conspiracy theories that we constantly hear about? I know I have. There was a time period for me where I binge watched countless youtube videos of self-proclaimed experts trying to reveal all types of outrageous theories. The majority of the conspiracies seem to be absolute bullshit but there are a few that will make you think twice and give you the curiosity to look into it a little further.

One theory that I've always had an interest in is the Illuminati. I was first exposed to the alleged secret group made up of the most elite and powerful group of people in the world through music. For some reason, there has always seemed to be a constant obsession between music and The Illuminati. There is a bunch of theories that exist within the conspiracy, one being New World Order it is considered an agenda where they are conspiring to rule the world by using an authoritarian government. I have heard the secret organization name dropped in countless songs growing up and even some before my time. There's thousands of lyrics that can be found where artists are mentioning how they've been approached to join the secret society, and some even rebelling against the group. Going back to 1999 where Tupac and The Outlawz released a song called Killuminati, which literally meant kill the Illuminati. The song was supposed to expose the elite group and all of their supposed dealings in society. This was a constant theme in Tupac’s music and some even believe that it's the reason behind him being murdered. There were so many conspiracies that surrounded Tupac throughout his life and even after his death. One being that he's somewhere shacked up in Cuba living a carefree life after faking his death.

Some say to join this elite group you have to have earned a substantial amount of money and be willing to follow all orders that they give. There are different interviews out there where you see musicians telling stories about them being approached and speaking on the subject.

There are few that believe that the reason so many musicians are approached is because this is the most effective way for the society to get their message out. By relaying the message from the higher ups they are alleged to be repaid with instant fame and fortune. I myself think part of it is true because everyone listens to music and there are all sorts of subliminal messages that goes over our heads. There were a couple artist who even hinted that to be taken into the group you had to actually “sell your soul” and hand over your life. "Illuminati want my mind, soul, and my body. Secret society, trying to keep they eye on me." - LL Cool J

You may be asking yourself where am I going with this. But there's always a thought that occurs to me that there has always been someone behind a curtain pulling the strings. M.T Anderson's Feed is a book based on a future society. Titus along with his five teenage friends all share the feed. The feed is a microchip that is put into the head and constantly feeds knowledge to the brain. It also does a majority of critical thinking. Violet, a girl Titus meets on the moon doesn't have the same view towards the feed as everyone else. Violet comes up with a plan to destroy her consumer profile that leads to her downfall.

In Feed, I think that there is a theme that occurs where the corporations actually run the society and not the government. For example, Feedtech allows Violet to die because she goes against the system and they can't make a consumer profile for her. The way I see it is if more people decided to use Violet's plan there would be a mass effect. If the feed can not make a consumer profile that would probably mean that the individual wouldn't buy anything which would cause sales to go down. When these sales decrease the first person businesses who sell the merchandise go to blame would most likely be FeedTech which would result in a lot of unhappy people. To prevent this it would be a lot easier for FeedTech to let people like Violet die to make certain precautions that something like this would never happen. If there are people that can't afford the feed that would imply that it isn't something that is relatively cheap and easy to obtain. Which brings me to the point that it's a very large money maker and nobody likes to lose money. If others chose to follow Violet’s path I think that it would start to make the whole point of the chip obsolete and this is one trend that FeedTech would absolutely hate.  If a corporation has the power to take life or death situations into their own hands it should show how powerful they actually are. This causes me to wonder what if FeedTech had something to do with how the hacker from the party was beaten to death. To me, it all seems to relate. There are rumors and conspiracies about different celebrities dying because they spoke out against the secret society I mentioned earlier.

What if this was a way for FeedTech to keep any uprisings against the feed under control. I started to touch on this topic in my last blog, where if you go against a system there will always be efforts to keep things the way they are. When people who are filled with greed and constantly have money and power on their mind I think going as far as death may not be a crazy idea to them. When the FeedTech customer service associate informed Violet about how they can't fix her she was literally telling her that they don't have any interest in fixing her if she isn't buying anything and bringing in any money. “We’re sorry, Violet Durn. Unfortunately, FeedTech and other investors reviewed your purchasing history, and we don’t feel that you would be a reliable investment at this time. No one could get what we call a “handle” on your shopping habits, like for example you asking for information about all those wow and brag products and then never buying anything. We have to inform you that our corporate investors were like, “What’s doing with this?” Sorry — I’m afraid you’ll just have to work with your feed the way it is.” (p. 247). How would you feel if you were facing death and someone who has the keys to your life decided to tell you that you weren't a reliable investment?

This whole blog idea reminds me of a Netflix series I recently watched Iron Fist which is a Marvel based show about a boy who comes from a wealthy background and loses his family in a plane crash and is taken in by a monastery and eventually goes back to his hometown about 15 years later to take back part of his family company. In one scene he says that the world isn't run by the government anymore it's all big money making corporations that pull the strings. Take a guess what happens to the people that try to cause a stir with these corporations and secret cults in the series. They either are killed or nearly killed.

This all defiantly does seem like one crazy ass idea that someone made up, it's kind of hard to think about a bunch of rich people sitting around a table with hoods on discussing how they can control the world.

If the evidence continues to build I think I can start to give some thought that the world is leaning more and more towards a corporatocracy. Which is a society that is controlled by corporations. There could also be a slim chance that the leaders of these corporations are sticking together to form an elite group where they can pull strings and use celebrities and different artists to push their movement on society.

Word count:1298

Anderson, M. T. (2010-05-06). Feed (p. 247). Candlewick Press. Kindle Edition.

Malachi A.

Word count:1368

Open Your Eyes

People really need to speak up in their lives, it is so simple if you see something that does not seem right and you have an opinion this somewhat educated, speak up. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, yes I agree with it but some opinions just are not necessary. For example, if you have no idea about what is going on in an election, do not say anything about it. First, inform yourself then give your opinion. The world has a lot of issues and problems that are swept under the rug and people just ignore them. It's like what world do we live in that an issue that affects many people is ignored. A big factor to people not knowing everything is social media. People are so focused on what happened to a celebrity then what's happening to the honey bees right outside their doorstep.

But then the question that comes about is “Why can't we get anyone's attention?”. Personally, I believe it is this whole social media trend. All these young adults that are America's future are temporarily distracted by the media. Don't get wrong, there are people out there that are aware of this issue but the mass audience are not and it’s quite aggravating. Yeah, I use Snapchat and twitter too but damn there are people that make a living off of their followers. These people are bought out by advertising firms and the firms use their followers to pretty much distract them and get them to buy their products. But this is definitely not a new thing. Celebrities are literally advertisements at this point. Anything that shines just a little bit brighter in the like turns into an advertisement. But in today's corrupt society it seems like the advertisements can be seen as the rug and the problems are the dirty billboard that the ad is placed on. No one looks at the billboard (problems in society), everyone looks at the ad and goes on with their day. At this point in time advertisements seem like a cover up.

I am a college student who is trying to get a major and degree in marketing. So yes do I know some knowledge of how an ad works. I would say so but damn I am literally bashing them and next thing I know I will making a living off of them. But let me first expose the fine print. No one in a corporation cares about how their customer truly feels. As long as you buy their products, they will be satisfied with the money going into their pockets. Like we are talking about human beings here, the ones that are supposed to care for one another, right? But that is not the world that we live in anymore.

But let me get to the point, I am in the second semester of my first year of college. In literature class, we have read and studied the book written by M. T Anderson know as Feed. Yeah, I understand that the book was published in 2002 but we are getting real close to being one our way. What I mean by this for those who have not read it (98% of the general population), it is a book about how a computer like device is implanted in the brain and how the user can use it anytime took look up anything they could possibly imagine without a screen or anything, they just have to think about it and watch it through their own eyes. Just like in today's society how not everyone has the internet, not everyone has the device known as The Feed. But just like computers and websites, the Feed also has advertisements on the pages that pop up and block the user. I thought our society as a whole was getting covered with billboards and banners electronically and physically but the people in the novel really can not unsee them. Imagine getting flooded with advertisements while looking at a blank wall. I mean come on, that makes watching paint dry interesting.

There will always be someone or something that tries to revolt against the system. And in this case, it's a girl named Violet. She also has the feed so she understands what others are going through. But she is trying to mess with the system. People do the same thing these days, you would be surprised of people trying to mess with things like electricity and the internet. Service providers like optimum stand by a certain code and expects those customers to live by that code. If a customer is causing problems to the provider or abusing their services in any way shape or form. The corporations don't care about you, they just stop providing for you. And do not be surprised this happens more often than you think. So what does the Feed start to do for violet, it starts depleting. The corporation realized she was a treat to them, so what do they do, they start to pull the plug. But this not like she can just get another provider if the Feed dies in her, she also dies. The corporations are taking over people's lives and even deciding if they live or not.

A big thing in our society is trends. Once something has the ability to become popular and profitable, corporations stop what they're doing and focus on it to try to figure out on how to make the most amount of money.  I am going to use YouTube as an example. YouTube had a good start and it seemed the future of video watching so what did advertisements firms do. Flood the website with ads. Over the past few years the advertisements have become excessive and out of hand. Every video has an ad in the beginning and if the video if long enough, one or two more ads will pop up in the middle of it. It’s like trying to brainwash me or more or less piss me off. Just like in the novel, the Feed overwhelms the kids with advertisements and at some points, it’s just a block. Kids in the novel and in our society are become less educated on what the main problems are. And I am not saying it is just kids, everyone is buried in their phones physically and figuratively. People these days are daredevils, we literally walk across the street blindfolded. With people looking down all the time and not focusing, what’s stopping from society turning into one just like in Feed.

On another note, what really bothers me in this society is ignorance. People go around acting like they are Einstein or something just because they read a headline of a news article they found somewhere in the twitter archives five minutes before opening their mouth. And it is not like this happens once in a blue moon. I completed an ethnography paper last semester for my writing class and I'll be honest, I eavesdropped, that was the point of the paper. And damn I heard some stupid things but what is causing individuals to not be educated. We all literally carry around computers to look up correct information. This same concept occurs in the novel, the Feed users have an unlimited supply of knowledge at the edge of their fingertips but damn they are not even fourth-grade education worthy. Is it because we are too lazy to look up the truth or is it we can believe everything we hear (which is also a saying our parents flood into our heads as children). The kids in the novel literally can not formulate sentences properly without needed assistance from their Feed. What are the school systems for if I have all the information at my finger types? I could look up anything and everything there is no need to be taught something, I could just look up how to do something, but I guess that is not the case because the kids can't even use correct grammar.

Overall, corporations are brainwashing each individual one step at a time, the mass audience is too big and too distracted to even realize what is going on. Yeah, everyone thinks differently but we only one voice to be heard to make a change. The big companies block us from the truth and reality, everything important gets covered up by a Kardashian or someone that is temporarily important. We see it all the time, a school shooting in the next state over, or a murder on the run, and what? These conversations last one night over dinner. It is truly pathetic at this point. Open your eyes people, we need to see what's happening behind the scenes and what's happening right next to every single person.

-Peter C (1470 Words)

Source- Anderson, M. T. Feed. London: Walker , 2002. Print.

What's Life Without A Little Risk?

How would you feel if you were being shielded from the opportunity to roam free with your mind and kept in a bubble? Away from exploring the world, making your own memories, own opinions, likes and dislikes. Having someone be the puppet master to your life and calling the shots for you. It sounds like a human self torture; not being able to fully live your life the way you would like to. I’ve pretty much have established this idea from my previous blogs that the Feed does this exact thing to whoever has it is implanted in their brain.

The book is almost too prophetic with the concepts of human dependency of technology, dumb president and depleting environment from lack of human care towards the planet. And of course inevitable love story that makes teen books more appealing to young readers.This control the Feed has on humans implanted with it is strong, but Titus still managed to feel something, an attraction, towards Violet. It made me question exactly how powerful the feednet was when Titus pulled away from her while she was defective and dying. I honestly thought the Feed was taking control of him for a second but then he went back to her eventually and pushed away his need for the feed.

Recently I have finished reading this book called Everything, Everything and it made me think about Feed and some similar themes these two books had. Rebellion and love. If you haven’t seen the trailer for the movie made of the book I’ll briefly tell you what is is about.... Madeline (protagonist) all her life has had a severe case of immunodeficiency (bubble boy disease). She has stayed indoors all her life with filtration systems in the house that prevent any viruses or bacterias from entering the air and harming her.

She eventually becomes curious of the boy next door Oliver and the “outside”. She ends up falling in love and risks her life to experience one perfect day in Hawaii after running away from home. Don’t mean to spoil it BUT plot twist after she got sick in Hawaii she found out she never had SCID (the bubble boy disease )and turns out her mom was being overprotective and didn’t want to risk losing her daughter after already losing her husband and son…

All out of love though right? But seriously it’s safe to say that any type of love makes people crazy in different ways. But isn’t that craziness worth it in the end? Call me a hopeless romantic but I think love and happiness makes many things worth it.

Scene from Everything Everything 

Being blocked out from the world, whether it be literal or intellectual, is not living. It is only natural for one to be curious of the unknown. Wanting to explore what is out there, what one has yet to discover with their own senses. To unravel a new experience, it’s a new type of excitement. The Feed also prevented this urge for curiosity by filling one in with “information” that it wanted one to know, not the truth Madeline’s mom did this to her with keeping her trapped in doors for her whole life. It was for her protection, for her so called medical condition and to prevent any risk of anything harming her. But in the end of the day what is life, what is living if you don’t take risks?

You can’t just decide what is right or wrong for a person. One needs to experience life for themselves in order to learn through mistakes. It’s the trail and error part of life. Don’t get me wrong being safe and reassured and having a sense of control your own life is a nice thought but it just isn’t living to me. Encountering the imperfections and beauty hidden all around us, in nature and within people, is what makes being a person more liberating and well more alive.

What is happiness or love or life  if you don’t try and find different ways to laugh or smile or live. To meet new people, to experience relationships, bonds, emotions; friendships or lovers, you can’t feel it without experiencing it. Reading about love or life and the idea of love is so different from actually falling and being in love. “A description of a tree s not a tree, and a thousand paper kisses will never equal the feel of  Olly’s lips against mine” (Everything Everything, pg 319)

How us people live and view life is a mixture a nature and nurture. Opinions, ideas, likes/dislikes all develop from instinct or from inspiration of something/someone we have seen.

I mean love is it’s own universal language. You can experience it with all 5 senses. Love and curiosity is what made Madeline run away and it’s what made Violet want to interfere with the feed. They wanted more out of their life and the ability to have the say in what they do with their own lives. The two characters both risked their own life, Violet with the tragic death and Madeline with the risk of dying from exposure to the outside before knowing the truth of her health. When the truth was revealed to them, they realized the life they were living was a lie.

Titus and Violet starting being aware of the dying planet and the corruption of the Feed, Titus after Violet's death realized he needed to break away from the control of the Feed. Madeline realized she was missing out on seeing the world, having simple luxuries like going for or walk or being around other people, friends. Different motives but they all wanted out. Out of the control of someone else and do what they want to do. Having the freedom to fend for yourself is not only a necessity but also a luxury. It’s what makes us humans impulsive and makes us have a mind of our own. If I were to be in the predicament of either character from these two different books I would choose the risk over staying the same time and time again. It’s my life and I want control of any and all my decisions. All mistakes or blessings are lessons and for humanities sake I hope whoever is reading this now or years from now has the ability to take control of their own mind and life...

Leslie C

Word Count: 1065

Sources: Feed, M.T Anderson

Everything Everything, Nicola Yoon

The Future of Teenagers

As years go by, many things change around us. We see these changes in our environment, friends, jobs, education and many other things. However, one thing a lot of people tend to forget is the change you witness within yourself. We grow up and for many of us, this involves growing out of our old mindsets to adopt new ones. Growing up also causes you to look at your past self and judge it according to your current morals. Once you become an adult, it seems as though there is only one era in your life you look towards for judgement and comparison. Of course this era is your teenage years.

Ah yes, the teenage years! An era of angst, high emotions, and self discovery. A time where you were fragile yet curious to see how much of the world you can take on! A time where everything seemed to be coming at you at once...

These years sucked.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED my teenage years. However there are parts that completely sucked. Heartbreaks, school, drama, parents, basically everything that a teenager goes through at that age. But now that I'm more of a young adult, I started saying a phrase that I'm sure a lot of you have heard through your parents or anyone older than you. 

"Kids nowadays are just not the same..." 

I look at teenagers now and question so many of their actions and feelings. Especially with social media, seeing teenagers doing the most has me completely shook on the idea that so many things have changed. Then I sat back and realized that these changes are just the way of life. In a way it's a cycle; a cycle that EVERYONE acknowledges once you start to reach the age of 20.

This cycle of "judging the youth" can also be seen in many forms of entertainment. You always see this qualm towards teenagers in television shows, movies, commercials, and even literature. 

A novel that I recall this depiction of teenagers is in the book Feed by MT Anderson

Feed is a novel in which a chip (aka the internet) is implanted in everyone's brain, allowing them to be connected to the Feed all the time 24/7. In the novel we see how main character Titus and his friends act with each other due to the feed and how he begins to eventually want to revolt against the feed to erase his dependence on it.

In my last blog I spoke about how these characters reflect us because of how desensitized they are to the world around them because of the feed. There are many other topics that we can dive deeper into that reflect the stereotypes of youth and older generation judging it. 

One major presentation of this is towards the end of the novel when Titus is arguing with Violets father while she lays brain dead due to her loss of the feed. 

Her father yells at Titus saying 

"We Americans are interested only in the consumption of our products. We have no interest in how they were produced, or what happens to them... What happens to them once we discard them, once we throw them away." (Anderson 290)

Here Violet's father is not talking about the Feed or even how people Titus' age treat the things around them (more on that later), Violet's father is talking about how Titus treated Violet before and after her loss of the Feed.

What happened was that Titus was really into Violet but once her Feed got hacked he began to disconnect from her life and in a way began to stop caring for her.

Violet's father is obviously presenting an issue of care and actions people like Titus give towards people they claim to care about. This is meant to show how wrong it is to treat a person like this and allows the reader to analyze why violet's father has the audacity to say this. A simple conclusion can be made by knowing that Violet's father is older and more knowledgeable than Titus and this is his way of showing Titus old (correct) methods of treating people. (Just like the pattern we discussed earlier!)

"back in my day!!!"

Analyzing this towards the real world, constantly adults look at the younger generations and judge them on how they treat one another. For example, my father used to always tell me stories of how he sees kids on the street showing extra amounts of PDA (public display of affection) and how this PDA is rude and not right. Whenever he tells me something like this, I never fail to look at him funny in thinking that this is just the new norm and he is just sticking to his old conservative ways...

... Then I turn around and judge all these kids for calling each other bae, showing each other off on social media in the most cringe worthy way and doing the MOST with their significant other... Just like my dad.

So, is Violet's dad right? Is Titus mistreating Violet or is Titus' behavior just the new ways of teenagers.

Well to explain this, there are actions that the new generations do that are either harmless or completely morally and universally wrong. For example, calling your significant other bae or even showing them off in an extra manner is really harmless in the long term. In Titus' situation, he's making the decision to begin cutting ties with Violet because simply does not work the same as she used to. This is something that should be seen as universally wrong. To not care about your close friend (who is also dying) because she simply does not work. Sorry Titus but asshole move on that part. 

This is a prime example of how the cycle can in our favor and how its true that the younger generation can be depicted in a negative manner. Examples like this is scattered all throughout the novel but in a more subtle manner.

If you read the book twice having the knowledge that MT Anderson meant to make you think twice about how the younger generation is represented, you can see Titus and his friend's actions showing the negative representation.

Going back to my previous blog on the topic of desensitization, Titus and his friends do not appreciate the exciting world they live in and everything else around them. Of course the famous first line of the book "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck" (Anderson 3) shows this perfectly. 

Teenagers seem to always be depicted as a bored group of people. Always looking for excitement. MT Anderson presents this to us but in an extreme (as he always does). These characters are clearly bored and would much rather be sitting around doing nothing but stay on their Feed. 

Indeed a sight you don't see a lot

Looking at teenagers today, this is exactly what they do. Always presenting themselves for Instagram instead of taking on whats actually going on around them. Always wanting to just stay inside and play Xbox instead of going outside and play.

Us adults ALWAYS see this in the younger generation and became a common trend to yell at them to "go outside" or lecture them by saying something along the lines of "when I was your age, I didn't have this, I actually played outside." To combat this claim we all are guilty of thinking one point or another, think back to a time when you were a kid/teenager. What were you doing? Most likely playing outside exploring the world; but a better question is what would your parents always nag you about? For me, my parents who are of asian backgrounds always nagged me about doing work or learning instead of playing. For other kids it would be about chores and hearing parents say "When I was your age, chores were all I did, I barely got to play." What is presented here once again is the cycle ladies and gentlemen.

We can see this cycle happen one more major time in the novel.

In the novel we see characters talking about a new trend going on called lesions. Lesions are basically cuts in your skin and we see all the characters comparing them, getting new ones and going to the extreme to have them. As a reader we see this and think its absolutely disgusting and even dangerous.

When I heard of lesions I thought about a time in my life where there was a trend going around that is now considered a dangerous life style. This time in a lot of peoples lives were considered their "emo days," and yes I admit it, I went through this too.

The emo phase is basically a culture phenomenon where people who are depressed, sad, or even worse suicidal show off their problems by wearing all black, a lot of dark make up, showing their sadness constantly, and even worse cutting themselves

(Now before I get judged or ridiculed for partaking in this teenage phase, hear me out. I NEVER went as far as self harming myself and I NEVER condone any behaviors of this culture. Just sharing.)

Many of us remember this time and as adults we look back at it and understand how silly, stupid and dangerous it was to think this way. I sure did once I grew out of it. It was a dangerous trend that people fell into and a sad portion of it was the trend of people cutting themselves and even go as far as competing who can self harm themselves worse.

Not to downplay or poke fun at this culture (because it is a culture that really needs to be prevented) it still is represented in Feed. Lesions are VERY similar to these self harming actions and people do it because everyone else is doing it in their culture. (Very sad but very true)

Then I begin to think about how adults would look at me when I was in this phase. They would say things like how I'm being over dramatic, over sensitive, too rebellious, and many other things. I would always combat this by being knowledgeable about the time era most of these people grew up in. When they were my age they were surrounded by a ton of things that older generations found to be "Devils play" or "not right for society." Even go as far as say their trends were simply teenage delinquency. This shows our cycle once again but this is where I fall guilty as well.

I constantly look at younger trends and judge them. Suddenly it became trendy to be more disrespectful to elder people. Or it became a trend to mistreat other people or even their loved ones for either a post on social media or a stupid challenge. Then I realize these are the exact same qualms adults had with me when I was being extra and disrespectful during my emo phase. 

So with all this said, what can we say about the future of teenagers. What I believe is that by presenting to all of you this simple cycle of judgement among old and new generations, I can tell you the future is going to remain the same.

With new things going on in the world and teenagers growing up completely differently than how we grew up, we all step back and realize that those teenagers used to be us one day. In a way, we used to be EXACTLY like them. Just a new world around them and new things to talk about. 

Even in Feed where as an adult reader we see the teenage friends of Titus and think how stupid and senseless they are, at the end of the day we can't reject the idea that they used to be us a while back. I believe that's why its so easy to build a connection to the characters. They reflect our real world issues as well as reflect our past and how things used to be but in a different time period.

It makes us question if this is how our future teenagers will be. As of now it looks wrong but once that time comes, we are going to right back in that cycle.

Liam R.
Word Count: 2063
Works Cited:
Feed By MT Anderson