Amusing Ourselves to Death
von Neil Postman
In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think. As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television. And because television is a visual medium, whose images are most pleasurably apprehended when they are fast-moving and dynamic, discourse on television has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation. Postman argues that public discourse--the advancing of arguments in logical order for the public good, once a hallmark of American culture--is being converted from exposition and explanation to entertainment.
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
von Neil Postman
In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think. As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television. And because television is a visual medium, whose images are most pleasurably apprehended when they are fast-moving and dynamic, discourse on television has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation. Postman argues that public discourse--the advancing of arguments in logical order for the public good, once a hallmark of American culture--is being converted from exposition and explanation to entertainment.
Aktuelle Rezensionen(1)
Rezension von CamilleI read this for school, and I was, ironically, quite amused. Here's the response I wrote to it for school: I enjoyed Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I thought that the writing was repetitive, but instead of boring me, the repetitiveness reminded me of how I speak when I am talking passionately about something that interests me. I also enjoyed it because I found Postman funny. There were multiple times that the ways that Postman would phrase his arguments would make me laugh- for example, “Though the Constitution makes no mention of it, it would appear that fat people are now effectively excluded from running for high political office. Probably bald people, as well” (p. 4). He also made jokes throughout the essay that I think people did not appreciate because they were not engaged by the content of the book-length essay. However, I was also interested in the essay because of its topic. Amusing Ourselves to Death has left me thinking about it ever since I started reading it. I find his ideas about television and the way that technology has taken over society very thought-provoking. The other day, for example, my mother was commenting on how a friend of ours only has one hobby—solving Rubik’s cubes—and that it would be more beneficial to spend time on the internet because then he would at least have something common to talk to other people about. This made me think about how most young people consume social media in such an unhealthy way that the easiest form to connect with others is to immerse yourself in popular culture, otherwise you are alienated by others in your age group. I also recently had to delete some apps that were distracting me from my school work, and it made me think about how if people put more restrictions on themselves concerning their use of the internet, they could break away from the dangers that television poses, as Postman speaks about in the essay. Honestly, this essay sent me into a small-scale crisis, because it got me thinking about the decline in the literacy rate, and how most of the children I know that are younger than me do not seem to have conversations of any emotional value. I also think it is important to mention that the purpose of AOTD is not to amuse people, but actually to identify the dangers of people only finding value in things that amuse them.