Americans are beginning to evolve into the setting and characteristics found in the novel Fahrenheit 451. In the book, the main character, Montag, has a home that is described as having walls made up of large television screens. This is not far-fetched from what can be found now in most American family rooms. Our society enjoys large televisions with flat screens, which can be mounted right onto the wall. Above fireplaces where wedding photos or beautiful family portraits were once found, there are instead plasma television sets.

In the book Fahrenheit 451, a world is described where Americans cared less and less about the full news story and eventually desire just a headline. This is becoming more of the case in our society now. There is a popular news channel now called “Headline News” where a 30 second description of a story is normally splattered onto the screen before moving on to something else, as headlines run on the bottom of the screen with no real description. News headlines and blurbs are also available on the Internet on popular search engine sites such as Yahoo and Google where viewers can find a one-liner or video summarizing the event. Most people in this country do not receive their daily information from a newspaper, as they once did in the not so distant past. Now the majority of Americans receive their news through the Internet or television.

Electronic forms of entertainment, such as DVD players and video game systems, have also become a more well-liked past time than reading. Electronic entertainment has become so popular that many American households have memberships to clubs that will automatically send DVDs or video games in the mail to their homes. Many of the DVDs watched in the home are based on books that the viewers have never read. This just goes to show that Bradbury's description of the future where man was addicted to electronic forms of entertainment and did not desire the written word was not far from today's truth.