Unlike many youth of my generation, I am not very technologically savvy. I have a smart phone with all the popular apps and generally know what the new technology is, but I do not always understand it. I find new features I never knew existed on my phone and computer all the time; technology just really isn't my thing. That being said, the things that Shteyngart describes in the novel do not seem all that unusual or impossible. For example, the public can't know everything about each other,but Google has admitted that they have access to every email sent over Gmail according to the article, "Google: Don't Expect Privacy When Sending to Gmail." The technology is already out there to screen people's information through certain channels as the article we read about the NSA and GCHQ reveals.
The fact that people do not hold and read actual three dimensional books in the story is interesting to me. Eunice even states to her friend that she was "embarrassed" to watch Lenny read. This is another correlation with our world today because we all witnessed the collapse of book stores due to the tablet or devices like Kindles. This isn't just a trend in books either. Basically all major newspapers have apps or websites that a person can read articles from, rather than picking up a ten page bundle of papers.
The whole social side of the technology is a bit unnerving as well because today a lot of our perception of people is based on what they put on social media. Sometimes, the only way we know what one of our friends is doing is because of their Facebook pictures or tweets. These sites may not give us their credit score but we can look at the last few years of their life, what they post about themselves and their opinions and different pages they "like." Their social standing is sometimes based on how much they post or how often they update statuses. Joshie arranges for Lenny to have a brand new apparat and advises him to "surf the data streams better; learn to rank people quicker," suggesting that he will be more liked if he does. This is very common in today's society as people often are teased if they don't understand a reference to a new app or a viral video that is out.
The novel treats technology as a life source. Without it, the people cannot function and the government cannot keep the people in their control. Everyone using their apparati to communicate, shop, and research everything is what fuels the constant innovation forward. Even from a biological sense, technology is a life source as people are trying to make themselves younger and more beautiful and ultimately want to live forever. This is not unheard of today, either, just another way that Shteyngart has brought his imagination into the real world.
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