Look at What Technology Has Done

Look at What Technology has Done

"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury displays family life during some point of the future. Although his interpretation of family life may seem extreme, a person may read this story and deem practices within as normal in his canonical worlds. This short story points out how depressing the human's condition has become. Tools and machineries remove the affection that puts together the parents' and children's relationship. Families today are somewhat like the family in the story, the Hadleys. Although smart houses have not been patented, some devices allow people to do some of the things that the Hadleys do as well. By comparing modern families to the family in the fictional story, Bradbury allows the readers to see the future already upon society. Bradbury uses exaggerations to show how technology has replaced some of the core family values practiced throughout the centuries.

Modern families today are somewhat similar to the Hadleys in the fictional story. The Hadleys depend upon devices for everyday life and so do many people in today's world. The Hadleys live in a "Happy life-Home" tangent upon things being done for them. For example, they depend upon a scrubber to give them a bath, and they even have a shoe tier that ties their shoes. At this point in the story, a person will consider this life as being luxurious and lazy.

In our present day, cell phones have gone from being just a fashion statement to almost a necessity. If a person goes to the store, it is very rare that he or she makes a grocery list because he or she can use the phone to call home and ask what is needed. On a daily basis, humans take the route of being lazy rather than being self-sufficient. If there is a way for a person to get around doing something, he or she will find out what it is and try to get it. Even little mechanical devices are used to help clean up such as a trash and metal pick up. This is similar to the way the Hadleys operate. One can almost consider this an evolutionary process because in today's world, people are looking for short cuts, so in the future technology may allow them to find more loop holes.

Although there are cell phones to monitor peoples where about, there are also gadgets to help prevent doing household chores. There was no cooking for the Hadleys' because their stove prepares the food for them "stove busy humming to itself, making supper for four" (Bradbury 1). The cooking in the modern home, in most cases, can be done by a house cleaner. Among other things, the Hadleys' stove prepares the food for them daily; however, there is nothing to be done around the house except to live and breathe. The Hadleys found out too late how dependent they were on technology. Depending on one thing, all throughout one's life rather than being self-reliant is very dangerous. As people see in the story, technology failure may result in premature death.

Although the lifestyles of the Hadleys may seem to be different from modern families, people today raise their children up somewhat similar to the Hadleys. Nowadays, children have less respect for their parents. If the child's guardian tells him,

"No you cannot have that toy," the child knows how to get his parents to change their mind. As the author of "Child Rearing" points out, "If children learn that they can get away with a behavior under one caretaker's watch but not the other's, they will be forever manipulating both to get what they want" (1). For example in the story, George Hadley said, "lock the nursery for a few days...."(Bradbury 2), but by the mother Lydia knowing what the kids are going to do, "the tantrum be threw," (Bradbury 2) she does not want him to do so. Parents want the easy way out of things when it comes down to discipline. The job parents dislike the most is dealing with a disobedient child. The reason in being is that the parents do not know how to handle the situation properly, or they have gotten advice from other parents and react in the wrong way. A mother will do anything just not to hear her child cry. For example, she will let her child go to the mall even though the child's room is not clean just so she does not have to be bothered with him whining later on during the day. When parents to give in to their child, it is like allowing him to find out how he can get over, or even make him think that he has some type of control. A parent has to set boundaries and stick to them because if he or she promises a certain consequence for a bad behavior and then does not follow through with it, the child learns that he can behave badly and not face the punishment.

In some cases, parents have abandoned the hands-on approach to child development and may rely on baby monitors and other aspects of technology. Parents use baby monitors so they do not have to keep walking in and out of the room to check on their infant. They feel that if they have a baby monitor, they can hear everything that is going on like movement and noises. Like the Hadleys, they feel that the nursery will

keep their kids entertained so they allow them in the room. The children, Wendy and Peter, are both physically and mentally attached to the nursery so much that they cannot live without it. The kids have chosen the nursery over their real parents, "Oh, I hate you... I wish you were dead!" (Bradbury 9). As written by Violanti, the reason parents are concerned about their kids being hooked up and plugged in too much because a public interest group, reports that technology "can also isolate children, emotionally and physically from direct experience of the natural world." (2) Peter and Wendy