From Entertainment to Addiction

Technology over the last decades has advanced the human species beyond what anyone

could have predicted. Modern technology has changed the everyday lives of billions, making

them rely on it as a source of food, income and especially entertainment. As depicted in the

novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the new technology implemented in our daily lives will

gradually become so advanced they will pioneer a new level of distractions and we will develop

a new dependence on the items introduced into our lives. Technology is a lot more appealing to

the masses than a book, thus keeping them ignorant. Youtube, Netflix, Hulu and dozens of other

platforms distract people more than ever before. Bradbury is well aware of this issue and

represented it by making the characters not notice the several warning announcements and

telltale signs of imminent war, since they either do not care or are distracted. Billions of people

are dependent on technology to survive and make a living, just like they are dependent on

technology to keep them entertained even when their attention should be elsewhere.

Entertainment has been in the daily lives of humans for several millennia. From board

games to television, all the technological advances in entertainment are not bad, but can be easily

overused causing several new problems to emerge. Ray Bradbury uses Mildred to demonstrate

the extraordinary amount of time people spend entertaining themselves, and what the

consequences are. Mildred has no self control over how she spends her time, after watching

television for hours she switches to her little earbuds: “[Mildred] stretched on the bed, uncovered

and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible

threads of steel, immovable. And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight

''(12). Mildred spends her whole day watching television, and when she is not, she inserts the

tiny headphone to keep herself continuously entertained. This extreme example of the need for

entertainment is displayed in our society in many different forms; from the amount of time
people spend on their phones to the ‘Seashell’ like earbuds they wear everywhere. This

unprecedented amount of time spent watching entertainment is getting out of control and

dominating people's lives. People have their phones everywhere, letting them watch millions of

hours of videos. The imaginary family Mildred forged took over her mind, making her prioritize

them over her real family: “'Will you turn the parlor off?' He asked. 'That's my family.' ‘Will you

turn it off for a sick man?’ ‘I'll turn it down’"(48-49). Montag’s wife prefers to spend time

entertaining herself than with her real family because she has developed an addiction to

entertainment. She cannot remain any time without interacting with anything because all of the

entertainment she has ever needed is right at her disposal. Presently, people are getting their

entertainment delivered at their fingertips and is accessible whenever they want. That has

developed a hidden addiction in many that requires them to be entertained at all times. In modern

days, children get their source of entertainment when they are young, exposing them from a

young age already develops an addiction at a young age, that remains throughout their lives.

Bradbury knows people need to reevaluate the time they spend on themselves and should go

back to what really is important in life, not entertainment. Entertainment has the potential to be

good, but this opportunity has not been taken: “It's not books you need, it's some of the things

that once were in books. The same things could be in the `parlor families' today. The same

infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are

not”(82). The books have the reader make assumptions and think about the plot and themes,

while television replaces the thinking for the reader and shows everything directly. Television

replaced the aspect of learning in Montag’s society since learning has indirectly been deemed

illegal. Bradbury knows that televisions could be used to not only to entertain but teach, but they

are not being used for that as much as they could be. Entertainment in today’s society is a lot

more appealing than learning. Watching interesting stories appeals to more people than learning
about how things function. Procrastination is mainly due to how much more attractive

entertainment is to people than having to think or work. Modern entertainment has developed a

new generation that is addicted to entertainment and that disvalues the opportunities the new

technology gives them to thrive.

One of the concerns humankind has experienced since the beginning of time is war, but

war in Fahrenheit 451 does not represent war, but the daily problems that people face.

Fahrenheit 451 expresses the excessive amount of distractions people have in their lives by

constantly repeating to the citizens that they are in a constant threat of war, which is addressed

by no one: “The firehouse trembled as a great flight of jet planes whistled a single note across the

black morning sky.Montag blinked. Beatty was looking at him as if he were a museum statue. At

any moment,Beatty might rise and walk about him, touching, exploring his guilt and

self-consciousness”(32-33). Bradbury mentioned jets passing over several times during the book,

but they are not acknowledged by any characters except Montag. They do not acknowledge the

fighter jets because they are too distracted by the things around them, such as technology. The

war is obvious and imminent but the people lead their daily lives as usual. Our society is similar

to Fahrenheit 451’s since people ignore their problems and refuse to acknowledge them when

they are in front of them. People only act when it becomes too late, and sometimes the wait

makes the problem irreversible. Climate change is a prime example of how modern day people

have postponed the problem so much that it has developed irreversible effects. Montag is

differentiated from the others since he is the only one that takes notice of the jets: "Every hour so

many damn things in the sky! How in hell did those bombers get up there every single second of

our lives! Why doesn't someone want to talk about it? We've started and won two atomic wars

since 1960. Is it because we're having so much fun at home we've forgotten the world? Is it

because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor and we just don't care”(73). Montag’s
world is in chaos and the people living in his society don’t even take notice of the warning signs

around them since they are so immersed in their own world. The people around Montag prefer to

be entertained by a television than to take notice that they are about to be bombed. In today’s

society, people are oblivious to the world’s issues since people have never personally

experienced them. Hundreds of millions are in poverty and it could be easily fixable, but people

prefer to keep for themselves and leave the people in need to take care of themselves. People

prefer to spend money and time on luxuries instead of donating it to people who desperately need

it. Human nature is selfish, since people who take care of themselves instead of others have a

better chance to thrive, but to thrive as a species, people need to help others too after helping

themselves enough. Mildred’s friends do not care for war since it doesn’t affect them:“The Army

called Pete yesterday. He'll be back next week. The Army said so. Quick war. Forty-eight hours

war they said, and everyone home”(94). The removal of books has fueled their ignorance and

notion of what war really is. Mildred and her friends are representative of the population, they

are ignorant of what war really is since the history books and the sources of information have

been removed from them. The population simply does not care about a war since they do not

know the real consequences. Bradbury used the people who do not know about what war is like

to represent the country's officials. They send people to war on their behalf not knowing what it’s

like being there. Mildred’s friend’s ignorance perplexing since they talk about war like it is a

insignificant subject, as if going on a trip. They are too distracted by entertainment to be

interested in gaining knowledge. These days people are getting distracted too much and do not

notice things that are right in front of them. They prefer to spend time enjoying themselves rather

than paying attention to the world around them.

Technology helps humans in many areas, but like every other good thing, it has side

effects. Humans have developed a dependence on technology that makes us rely on it for many
aspects of our daily lives, a change unprecedented to previous generations. Bradbury used

Mildred as an extreme example of addiction that exposed the fact that people prefer to spend

time watching entertainment rather than contributing to society. In the coming years, as

technology advances, the issues associated with the amount of time spent entertaining ourselves

will also increase. War is something humans have always and will always struggle with, but this

new concept of entertainment being so available to us might just be just as catastrophic. This

addiction needs to be fixed since there are many consequences to only doing what you want.

Concentration is being replaced by the availability of entertainment. From being in your pocket

at all times to requiring no money to use, entertainment in the last few years has developed a new

generation of addicts, distraction addicts. In Fahrenheit 451 the consequence for this addiction

was death, Bradbury did this to show people need to change their ways or they will have to face

the consequences, whatever the may be.