Friday Firsts – The Feed by Nick Clark Windo

Friday Firsts is a new meme that will run every Friday here on Tenacious Reader. It will feature the first few sentences/paragraph of my current book and my first impressions as well. It’s meant to be a quick and easy way to share a bit about what I am reading, and I would love to hear others join in sharing their current reads as well.

Kate
What Would You Sacrifice?

Is this what you realize when you turn off the Feed? The restaurant’s other diners hustle around me, yet I am absolutely alone. I should be nestling in amid the raucous chatter of this busy place, but instead I’m embalmed in real silence, and it’s as that weird ringing thing happens in my ears that it hits me: Tom is right. I must really remember this. Even though this unconnected stillness feels deeply unnatural, it is good to be slow—if I can just ignore the itch in my brain.

I was spraying nonstop between classes earlier and I’m still buzzed from it now, even though I took Rafa for a big walk in the park after school. Marooning myself on a bench with my Feed off and my Do Not Disturb on, I threw his ball and watched the children play. That was it. That was all I did. No chats, no news streams. I had homework to mark (Class 9K filleting The Tempest with trowels in a filtered-thinking test I’d set them) and I should have messaged JasonStark27 to release him from detention, but I didn’t. I didn’t even check my pool. I simply sat and winced at the repetitive torture of the rusty swings and forced my thoughts to slow. And slowly the buzz subsided. My heart calmed and I felt the baby inside me relax: her agitations eased as my mind unknotted. Action: reaction—nice and clear. Tom would have been proud; I slip my Feed on now, here in the restaurant, just our PrivateStream, and nudge him to tell him he’s right. The connection makes my heart race, and without thinking I dip into the chatter of the restaurant’s hectic PublicStream, I plunge with ease into the—

“No!” Tom’s thick eyebrows go up and his eyes widen, in surprise or irritation I can’t tell, as his Feed stays off and his emotis are therefore unknown to me.

I turn my Feed off again like one of my troublesome pupils and we sit in silence some more. He smiles at me but I don’t return it. I can’t, for a while, while I concentrate. I can do this, I can go slow.

 

My First Impressions

I’m really curious. The idea of becoming so addicted to the constant barrage/stream of information coming through the feed is actually kind of relatable. The idea of just being normal and disconnecting as “going slow” is interesting and I’m curious to see what is in store and what will happen to this world when the feed they’ve become so dependent on stops. Again, kinda relatable. And a bit scary. Please don’t let my technology disappear!!

What are you reading right now? Did it start out strong? Feel free to share in the comments, and also feel free to link up!