The Dystopian World of Technology
Everyone is now drawn to their screens. Everyone is gaming, ordering food, learning and working on a screen. Life 200 years ago was all outside. There were no such things as screens or games or working from home. Why are so many students taking their classes from home instead of going to school? The short story “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury narrates the life of Leonard Mead, a resident of an unnamed city in the year AD 2053. For 10 years, Mead has walked the city streets alone, night after night, passing homes of other citizens who sit stuck by their screens. However, one day he is arrested for walking freely on the street because at the time, walking is a regressive tendency. Technological advances have taken people’s essential humanity and given power to machines. In the end, he is taken to the Psychiatric Centre for Research on Regressive Tendencies. Ray Bradbury aims to warn people of the danger of dependence on technology, resulting in loneliness and isolation of people, disappearance of certain healthy activities, and the control of technology over humans.
Ray Bradbury warns that depending on technology will make people feel lonely and isolated. Leonard Mead is the only person who walks outside, while everyone else stays inside watching TV. He feels completely alone for “In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking.” This shows how isolated people are from each other. The houses are dark and silent as “Everything went on in the tomblike houses.” People do not talk or go outside anymore. Leonard is different because he enjoys walking and thinking, while walking “The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead.” Leonard’s feelings prove how lonely and isolated the world has become. Ray Bradbury aims to convey the message that dependence on technology will result in loneliness and isolation of people.
Ray Bradbury also shows that dependence on technology can render some popular activities a thing of the past. Walking, writing, talking, and exploring are the activities that have become a thing of the past. Mead sometimes would “walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house.” Walking has become a regressive tendency, and it has been forgotten as a thing of the past. Mead is “Walking for air. Walking to see.” Mead is curious and creative, but exploring is forgotten at his time. The robot police car asks “Your address!” asking questions about his home and occupation. When Mead states that he is a writer, the car records this as “no profession,” revealing creative work in the future is a thing of the past. Ray Bradbury aims to convey the message that dependence on technology can render some popular activities a thing of the past.
Finally, “The Pedestrian” warns people that by depending on technology, they will ultimately give full control over themselves to technology. When Mead is arrested, “The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through his chest.” This is wrong because humans should have control over their own actions, not a robot who decides what they do. When he gets in, “As he had expected, there was no one in the front seat, no one in the car at all.” No one is taking control of the car. A robot is forcing a human to get arrested for walking. Leonard asks a question, “The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch-slotted card.” These machines have information all around the world and can make decisions on their own. This clearly states that we are not in control but the robots are. Ray Bradbury aims to convey the message that dependence on technology can ultimately give full control over themselves to technology.
In conclusion, Ray Bradbury aims to warn people of the dangers of dependence on technology, which are loneliness and isolation of people, disappearance of certain healthy activities, and the control of technology over humans. As of 2025, the average screen time for individuals worldwide is approximately 6 hours and 38 minutes per day. Exercise rates have dropped drastically. In fact, the statistics show that people are already on a trajectory that will end them in a world described by Ray Bradbury if they do not take any actions to correct the course.