Fahrenheit 451 Technology Essay Sample

People have different opinions about technology, some believe that technology is the future of the world, and others think that technology will destroy all of mankind. In the book “Fahrenheit 451” Ray Bradbury negatively portrays technology. Ray Bradbury negatively portrays technology because technology can detach you from reality and can cause your social life to be badly affected.

Being glued to your electronics can give you a false sense of reality as it did to most of the people in the society of Fahrenheit 451, specifically Mildred. Mildred was the wife of fireman Guy Montag who burned books for a living. When you read about Mildred, most of the time you often learn two things, that she only cares about herself and no one else, and you will also hear her name associated with the use of an electronic device like the thimble radio taped in her ears at night or the parlor walls. On the parlor walls, she would play interactive games throughout the day with people who she referred to as “her family.” She used this program for most of the day then would get in the bed and go to sleep with the thimble radios taped to her ears. Using the parlor walls all day every day distracted her from the actual issues that are happening in the real world outside of her front door and it also made her believe that the people on the screens were her family. She believed people on a TV screen were more of a family than her husband. When Mildred had the radios in her ears she would often listen to the news of everything important happening in the town thinking that what she was listening to were facts, but in reality, everything that was being said was propaganda. Things like books are bad and that if anyone sees books they should call the fire department so they could burn them. With Mildred using these different electronic devices throughout the day I think it’s safe to say that she has lost touch with reality.

Using electronics for long and frequent periods can have negative effects on your social life. In the book, the people of the Fahrenheit 451 society are antisocial. A good example would be Mildred. All Mildred does all day stays in the house and uses the thimble radios and interacts with the parlor walls. Doing this has caused her to become isolated and possibly depressed. In social relationships, it’s normal to have different opinions, that’s what makes you grow as an individual and a society, but when all people are told to have one belief, that restricts the growth. That's what has happened in Fahrenheit 451. Everyone is forced to believe that books are evil and that books threaten the happiness and well-being of society. This has caused all the people in Fahrenheit 451 to become mindless sheep. 

In Conclusion, technology is depicted negatively in Fahrenheit 451 because technology can negatively affect your social life and can give you a derealization of reality. In light of his viewpoint, I don't agree with Ray Bradbury because I believe there are more positives to technology than negatives. Factories are a good example, the technology that is being used in factories has made manufacturing more efficient and quicker. Another example is communication. Now that we have cellphones, that provides us with a quicker and easier way to communicate with each other.