While reading this novel, it’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that we are all on a somewhat “downward spiral” that will eventually have us behaving in the way that the characters in the story do. I realize that I am constantly on my iphone, looking up facebook profiles or an instagram photo. Much like Eunice and her generation I find myself always wanting the newest technological object that I can have. Even though my smartphone isnt quite as technologically advanced as their apparati, I still revere it in the same light that the characters in the book do. I always have to have it with me or I feel a sense of detachment from the world, a feeling that is both very shallow and very true. 

Another point in the novel that resonates with my own life is when Eunice and Lenny are shopping at the OnionSkin store and a clerk comes over the help them. Lenny instantly looks up every personal detail about the woman that he can find, something I found myself thinking was extremely pointless. But then I realized that this is another thing I find myself doing constantly. I will hear of someone and instantly go to Facebook or Instagram and look them up to see who they are and what they look like or maybe even where they are from. It seems as though in both universes, in Shteyngart’s and our own, people have a natural tendency to need to know everything possible about a person. In the article “Sex Yelp: New App Lets Ladies Anonymously Rate and Review Hookups.” the craziness continues. Now, not only can we look up someone’s birthday or hometown, we can also know whether or not it is worth it to hookup with them. This draws a distinct similarity to the scene in the novel where Lenny and his friends are at the Cervix and everyone begins rating everyone else, based solely on their looks. This scene seemed ridiculous to me because it seemed as though this already superficial society got even more superficial. These men and women didn’t seem to care about these people’s personalities, only about how their personalities seemed to be based on everyones view of them. Both this app and the apparati in the bar make it easier and less time-consuming to find someone to hookup with. Honestly, I don’t even really see the point of the app, why not just try it out for yourself? But it appears that all everyone wants these days is simplicity and ease. There might come a day when that will wear off but how do you go back to less simplicity?