——In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451 I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring at them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.
The culture in 2008 is very different from what is in the 1960s. Now digital technology practically took over the world, and played a major role in our lives. Ever since radios are invented, TVs, computers, gameboys, mp3s, and iPods all burst out and became important media for youngsters. People finally realized the importance of spiritual satisfaction rather than being anxious of their physical lives. All those entertainment are double sided swords, they are beneficial if you make good use of it, and otherwise, they can be harmful to you, to the society as well as the relationship between humans. But of course, Ray Bradbury did not know this. If he’d known, he would have walked right out of his grave and call for a revolution.