I love to travel! Recently I’ve made a habit of picking up a book at one of the airport bookstores — there’s usually always one — to read on the plane. I love using air travel as a way to disconnect from the internet, escape the constant pinging of my phone and let the world’s problems fade away. During my most recent trip I picked up Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The book was a small paperback and would easily fit in my backpack already crammed to the brim — perfect! It was also placed in the “Banned Books” section, which tickled the inner rebel in me.
I boarded the plane and started reading. The start was a little rough. The book throws you right into the middle of this dystopian future without much context or world building. So it took a little while before I got my bearings, nevertheless, I was enthralled. The book is set in a world where all books are banned and owning one could cost you your life. Instead of stopping fires, firemen create fires to burn books and any buildings harboring them. Every person is constantly bombarded with media and advertisements — from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed.
It is this last part that really struck a chord within me. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, people have access to all forms of pleasure imaginable to society. You can play any sport you can think of, you can drive at breakneck speeds down the road, constantly listen to music through little seashells in your ears, get immersed into televised media that is so advanced it feels like it’s talking directly to you and you become part of the show. Your family is no loner the people around you but the characters you engaged with on television. A world abundant with hedonistic pleasure and “happiness”. The constant threat of a looming war, the death of a friend or neighbor, the decline in personal mental health, all become a distant dream. A world where there is no time to think for that would mean losing the opportunity to consume more. This dystopian fantasy of Fahrenheit 451, doesn’t seem that far from our current world.
Recently I’ve been wrestling with my views on social media and especially short form content. I fear becoming one of those old people that hates on any new technology, forsaking the new generation into the realm of stupidity and wastefulness. Hence, I’ve strived to embrace this new media. However, the pit of my stomach churns every time I realize how much time I’ve spent consuming — and worst of all is that I haven’t learned anything. After a long doom scrolling session I leave knowing the opinions of people who I will never meet, people who will never care for me, people who don’t even know I exist. My own opinions and thoughts? There wasn’t any time to reflect on those. I’ve gained the knowledge of how Alice wants to be treated in a relationship, what Mark’s idea of success in life means or what Adam thinks is the reason our society is in shambles. But what do I believe?
I read a research article a while back that talked about how when we are “bored” it allows our brain to process the information we’ve stored and create new ideas and thoughts. I think there is some truth to this. Some of the solutions to my biggest problems have suddenly popped up in my head when I was doing nothing. Being “bored” has also allowed me to introspect things that have happened today or the recent past and learn from them. We have so much availability of “fun” things to do that it seems silly to just sit around and ponder. The world is changing so rapidly that it seems like a disservice to yourself to sit still. If you aren’t constantly hustling, consuming media, doing something, you’ll get left behind. Any sliver of down time is so easily filled up with a few short videos.
I fear that the constant stream of media, coupled with our unwillingness to sit with our own thoughts, will slowly erode our ability to think independently. To understand what we truly want from life. To distinguish our ambitions from those we’ve unconsciously adopted from others. And perhaps most frighteningly, to recognize that something important has been lost.
Perhaps the most frightening part of the world of Fahrenheit 451 wasn’t that books were burned, but that eventually nobody cared enough to read them. I wonder if we’re approaching something similar. Not a world where we’re forbidden from thinking, but one where we’re so entertained that we never feel the need to. Coming back to the plane ride, I still had two hours left on my flight when I finished the book. Normally, I would have filled that time with a movie or some other entertainment. This time, I decided to do nothing. To just sit there, be bored, and think about what I’d read. Somewhere in those two hours, the idea for this essay was born.
