Gary Shteyngarts’s fictional novel, Super Sad True Love Story, contains a variety of themes and ideas depicting the “modern” American society of the future. He writes this novel interestingly through a diary, which is an idea of the future but is considered old and boring to some parts of today’s society. The theme that I found most interesting in the novel is how social media is reshaping society and what it means to be human and social.
Almost everyone in society has an apparati, which is a device that lets you shop, view ratings of yourself and others, check stocks and completely takes your attention away for society around you. “ There they were, crowded around a table, their apparati out, speaking into their shirt collars while thumbing content into their pearly devices..(83)”. Today when you see a group of friends sitting around a table they are usually talking and laughing but in this society “hanging out” means to sit together and get updates on your friends from Global Teens and other virtual applications even though they are right next to you. When a person is actually talking it is almost a surprise to others and this event is usually recorded and streamed online. It is called “verballing in real time”, in others words talking outside his apparati.
Everything in this society is based on first impressions and people rate you in all catagories from personality to f***ability. One of the applications is called FAC, which means form a community. “ ‘ It’s, like, a way to judge people. And let them judge you (88)”. This devices takes away from dating, talking and forming bonds through personal contact. Shtyngart also emphasizes this society’s sex appeal how it great influences their daily lives and that this is the road we are headed down. This device encourages browsing a profile to find information about them which will be the determining factor of how compatible they are. This destroys self esteem because no one will have the skills to even start up a conversation and it also takes away from really knowing a person instead of viewing them as number or a stereotype. “Check it out. This girl done got three thousand-plus images, eight hundred streams, and a long multimedia thing on how her father abused her (90)”. This device knows so much about a person and elimates any sort of privacy in this society. The apparati also knows that Lenny likes to dates girls who have a history of parental abuse implying she would be someone he would like.
This novel shows readers what would happen if social conduct ceased to exist in the form of conversation in person. Humans will no longer enjoy spending time with each other due to one’s social status and ratings being so important.
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