Resisting a Social Decline by James

Resisting a Social Decline by James - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

No student should leave high school without having read the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This is a dystopia that describes how I believe the world to be today. With the ever-increasing requirement and desire for electronics and the clear dismissal of primitive modes of communication and learning (ie: books and newspapers), the world today might indeed be approaching a dystopia from which we might never recover.

Books have been and always will be the way which the past can cleverly keep teaching the future. Fahrenheit 451, cleverly titled for the temperature at which paper burns, tells a story of how the social and intellectual world appears to be in the eyes of the author, Raymond Douglas Bradbury. Books in this story are treated with disrespect—they are used to prop up things, are frowned upon and they are burned without reproach. In fact, the slight mention of books or anything they convey is almost taboo. Furthermore, characters are portrayed to be persons with lack of social capability, relying on their “buds,” (headphones) for some form of social input.

Society today is very disconcerting and I am fearful that this book may very well be a premonition of what our social world will become. I chose this book because since having read it, I have been passionate about straying from (or at least balancing) my use of technology as much as possible to retain my organic connection between other human beings and to older sources of information (books). I have personally witnessed friends in the academic setting decline socially, mentally and physically after their overuse of technology. It is paramount that the future students of the world understand a dependence on technology is actually a bad habit to form and that while technology is useful to make our lives easier, it is not substitute for the “know-how” that each common person should have. It is my firm belief that each student should read this book before leaving high school so that each student can realize that technology is great, but should be utilized in moderation, lest the social world come to a dramatic halt.