When reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, his subtle yet overarching message of public response and discussion in the age of television, technology, and show becomes more and more apparent. He emphasizes the vitality of media and effect each kind of media medium has on our society, such varying definitions of intelligence and truth between different eras of time. This emerging era of technology and television is the precedent to an increasingly vain and visually reliant world. Conversations in the past have had a factually based, rational, and complex nature, dissipating next to the power that imagery TV has over the American audience.
I agree, however, that human interest has recently latched onto more fantastical and visually stimulating aspects of media, instead of ones that are informational or grounded, found in printed novels or even literature. Screen reliant technology in general has made public discourse shift towards one centered around vanity, rather than concentrate on a message the media medium is attempting to deliver. I also identified such a materialistic transition in today's world, as the dominance of social media, cellphones, TV, and dating apps has increased public scrutiny of appearance. Printed words are meant to deliver information in a logical and analytically coherent order, but as this media medium is replaced with the ever so domineering TV, serious and rational discussions begin to vanish. There is no value to a subject's substance, but rather, their looks. However, Postman of Amusing Ourselves to Death points to the power of media and its implications on how our society functions, both in the past and present. From transmitting knowledge orally, written, printed, or televised, the construction of human society has been based on how we receive information, and how we therefore interpret it.
- Madison Nguyen
I am currently reading Brave New World which is equally as interesting as this one. There is no doubt that what you state is true about how our society is currently becoming more and more superficial and shallow by the second. Also, your post got me thinking of how incredible our current technology has such a silent and rapid influence on ourselves and the people around us. As always, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts in these posts and coming to other conclusions I hadn't before reading your posts, great job writing!
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