Before this article, it never occurred to me that technology could damage my psychological resources so greatly. A few classes ago, I told my classmates that I watched ten television shows. Of course, this is not regularly but ten television series is an awfully large amount of television for my brain to take in. In general for all viewers, these television series become addictive and we become distracted from what we should be working on. This then forces one to work late into the early hours of the morning, learning nothing as we are simply doing for the sake of doing and not learning. Our brain is switched off because all our energy has been used up in taking in information from distractions provided by technology for one night.
This article has opened my eyes to the effects that media and social media such as Facebook can cause someone. Facebook is a genius creation which allows us to remain in contact with many of your friends around the world; however, we all become obsessed with socializing all the time and we become distracted from our priorities.
How does this article relate to “Hunger”? In “Hunger”, technology is not the distraction that drives the protagonist insane but rather it his mind alone that does because it is in an unstable state due to his starving condition. Counsellor Peter Smith said some gamers “get so obsessed . . . they forget to eat and drift towards an anorexic and undernourished state.” This is similar to the way that things occur in “Hunger” but for different reasons. He has too much pride to beg which drives him to his impoverished state of living.
Philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal said: “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” I agree with what Pascal says completely! The protagonist in “Hunger” is constantly miserable because his mind is continuously buzzing. When he is in the room, walking on the streets, sitting on the bench in the park, I feel that his mind plays the role of the antagonist as it continues to feed information and advice to the protagonist: “So I walked along giving myself advice, and stamping impatiently when I didn’t take it, and scolding myself as a blockhead while astonished passer-bys turned around to watch me.” (90)
As you read further into the book, we see his mind eventually drives him to insanity. It is due to the fact that his mind is always picking out observations of his whereabouts that he is constrained from writing. His mind is his distraction and what are the effects of his mind on him?
1) His mind stops him from writing.
2) His mind stops him from earning income.
3) His mind stops him from begging. (He has too much pride; hubris)
4) His mind leads him to starvation.
“Rather than cultivating our faculties, these distractions can weaken them, leaving us unproductive, muddled or fettered.” This is demonstrated perfectly by the protagonist. As shown above, the effects that his mind had on the protagonist left him in an appalling condition and he was altogether “unproductive, muddled or fettered” all the time.
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