In a world as technologically savvy as todays, a gentle warning cannot hurt. In a world where people would rather text than call, ask Siri instead of a professor, or surf the web than initiate a conversation, even a futuristic, sci-fi novel can be seen as a warning: a story of what we could become. In Feed, M.T. Anderson uses the feed and its downfalls: lack of verbal communication, lack of proper education, and personalized advertising to allegorically convey a satirical message that as a whole, society has become dependent of modern technology.
     M.T. Anderson uses communication through the feed and the lack of dialogue to condemn texting and social media. Anderson writes, “I needed work, I was at a job interview. I was an excellent candidate. Two men were interviewing me. Talking about this and that. Then they were silent, just looking at me… I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny” (248). It is clear to the reader that those without the feed are left out of conversations simply because they do not have chat abilities. In this quote Violet’s dad was denied a job because he was unable to communicate through the feed. The interviewers did not stop at a verbal interview, but continued the interview by chatting Mr. Durn, who, of course, does not reply. In the interview and throughout the novel, characters sit in silence as they chat over the feed, similar to how people text today. The lack of dialogue moves the reader to engage in more conversation and become more conscientious of the amount of time they spend texting or on social media.  
     The author uses personalized advertising to connect the plot to today’s society and increase the validity of his allegorical message. “They want to know what you want… Everything we’ve grown up with- the stories on the feed, the games, all of that – it’s all streamlining our personalities so we’re easier to sell to” (Anderson 97). In this moment Titus suddenly understands the corporations’ schemes to sell their products and that he has been deceived. Throughout the novel Anderson intentionally makes connections to today’s society and personalized advertising is used to not only allow the reader to more easily relate to the plot; it is used to assist M.T. Anderson in his argument that the society in Feed is not too different from today’s. Personalized advertisements can be found on most on most websites or social media forms. Companies are paying search engines to find out what consumers are searching and then using that information to advertise products of interest to each consumer, which is eerily similar to the corporations tactics in Feed.
     M.T. further strengthens his message to the reader through the use of lack of proper education. “Now that SchoolTM is run by the corporations, it’s pretty brag, because it teaches us how the world can be used, like mainly how to use our feeds. Also it’s good because that way we know that the big corps are made up of real human beings, and not just jerks out for money” (Anderson 109-110). This quote from Titus is a key example of the manipulation utilized by the corporations in the novel. In Feed, the corporations, of all people, are actually in charge of the school system and the curriculum. The corporations greedily seize the opportunity to sway the curriculum in their favor by utilizing the ubiquity of  SchoolTM to sell their products to teenagers and children. Their teachings do not stop at advertising though, they also manipulate the children to make them oblivious of the corporations’ to the point of idolization. This ignorance of foul play is commonly seen in today’s society. People shop online, buy products, and never even realize that companies have bombarded them with advertisements that are often times too personalized to resist. The consumers today are not well informed of what is going on within the corporations, similar to Titus and his friends. The exposure of the corporations’ foul play to both today’s society and the one presented in Feed, would cause the buyers to become more leery of deceitful corporations and could likely put an end to personalized advertising.   
     Anderson uses the downfalls of the feed: personalized advertising, SchoolTM , and the lack of verbal communication to convey his satirical, allegorical message to the reader. By making the society in Feed so similar to today’s and presenting it with the diction used, the author accomplishes his goal. He convinces the reader that the society in Feed is composed of idiots and then forces the reader to connect that society to that of today. Lack of verbal communication caused by texting and social media, personal advertising on the internet, and ignorance of it all are becoming major issues in the world today and being cognisant of the fact forces the reader to rethink their habits. It is this personal reflection that will have a positive impact on the reader and decrease the world’s dependency on modern technological advances.