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Jonae Campbell

Mr. DeSilva

ENG4U-02

09 September 2019

How Bad Can Technology Be?

Technology continues to be an increasing problem in today’s society. Not only can it

create dysfunctional families, but it messes with people's heads, sometimes causing issues that

most people take for granted. Ray Bradly’s The Veldt and Fahrenheit 451 illustrate how

technology can overwhelm human relationships and destroy the innocent minds of children. In

the Veldt, George and Lydia Hadley are taken up by their ‘Happylife Home’ that they seem to

forget that they have two very spoiled children who are unsurprisingly more interested in the

African Veldt than them. In fact George admits that his children “live for the nursery” (2). It is

very unfortunate how machines can get into the way of this already emotionally detached family.

The point is, George and Lydia’s mistake is letting the children abuse these technologies, and the

worst part is they do not realize it. Similarly, Millie and Mr. Montag deals with the same

situation as Millie is absorbed by the technologies she uses. Lying in her bed, she consistently

listens to the music and watches tv. It seems that she is focused on that than to spend time with

the man who she promised to love, forever, her husband. There is no real conversation between

the two, and when there is, it often ends in them fighting. So many “walls” (Giant TVs) fight

their way between the two, and only Mr. Montag realizes it. Clearly “ he is not happy”, and it is
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as if “he [cannot] believe he [knows] her”. Of course, her depression has something to do with it,

but Millie makes no or little effort to regain her physical and emotional strength, and poor Mr.

Montag has to witness his marriage go down the drain. Both the Hadley family and the Montag

family have no connection with each other, and it is all because of the misuse of technology. The

Hadley parents, once again, struggles to control their children, and continues to spoil them with

different things. They are too focused on making their children happy, leading to their failure in

to say the word no. George expresses how “nothing’s too good for [the] children”(7), and what

just might help is to take away their privilege of access to these devices. Both Parents eventually

decides to give it a try and “[shuts] down the house for a month (5)”, but that does not work.

There is a very good explanation for this, and that is their children are immune to their every

attempt to disciplines. It is an absolute shame how these parents can allow such vile behaviour,

but only time will tell what will happen next, and it is not pretty. To compare, Millie and Guy’s

relationship is not extreme, but it is still unhealthy like the Hadley Family. Mr. Montag becomes

very frustrated by “the walls” which overcomes his every move to get his wife’s attention. He

does not get the love and affection that he needs, and this is the result of abusing technology.

Frighteningly, the sound of these walls are as “a great thunderstorm [gushing] out” (3) as he

describes. Not only do the two have a rather strange relationship, this relationship is the reason

for their miserableness. As appalling as this sounds, the relationship is going nowhere, and it is

all because of the lack self-control, line- draw when using technology. Both illustrations give

great points to what can happen to a person who is engulfed into the world of electronics.

Therefore, there must be boundaries when it comes to devices, that way one is safe from the

traps and consequences along with them.

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Works Cited

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