This shows how obsessed with technology people are that they forget about their own problems, however it does not make the problems disappear but hides them temporarily and it starts to build up so they keep their minds inattentive all the time. They lack self realization and acceptance of reality to recognize their own emotions and their own feelings so they have no way of revealing them. Furthermore the author shows the idea that illusions can harm people in a way can sometimes put them in a place they can never come back from. .
The society portrayed in 451 seems to be deeply in agony from within but wears a mask, denying that they are deep down depressed. Their contentment is another illusion that they establish for themselves. It gives off this impression when Montag reads out "Dover Beach" to Mildred and her friends. The poem has a theme of aspiration for bliss which expresses on how they profoundly feel as one of her friends burst out crying, "She sobbed uncontrollably. Montag himself was stunned and shaken."(103) After this scene Mildred quickly goes to take sleeping pills–as she did in the beginning, which makes it seem like she wants to get it out of her mind since the poem also reflects her life and she will be forced to acknowledge the depressing reality so sleep is her only sanctuary. Another occasion is when Mildred is forced to think or talk about the real world and its flaws; she simply shuts herself down and goes to her "family" as it is a distraction from her own thoughts. Bradbury is trying to show that true happiness does not come from simple pleasures or selfishness; they come from acceptance of the situation and reality; so with the illusions and distractions established harms us in a way that there's a loss of that key feeling of human life which is happiness. The lack of contentment harms humans not only mentally but physically because they become depressed and harm themselves.
