Postman leaves me with the impression that he believes people that use television as entertainment will not become as educated as those interacting with books and the written word. It is very obvious that Postman gives greater value to the written word as opposed to the spoken word. He wrote that, “In the academic world, the published word is investigated with greater prestige and authenticity than the spoken word.” (Page 21) He appears to be on his soap box giving a lengthy speech about something that he is completely passionate about, even when the people that most need to hear this probably will not read it.
I found it ironic that Postman used names to capture attention just as news reporters do. All summer long, news reporters have mentioned big stories involving celebrity tragedies such as Paris Hilton and now Lindsay Lohan. Reporters do this to get us to watch the news. How different is that from Postman’s use of famous author’s words? It was hard for me to be persuaded by him in the beginning when he used the same kinds of techniques he criticized others of using.
For being written in 1985, Postman had our society nailed. Like he said on page 68, “For most of us, news of the weather will sometimes have such consequences...” Most of us watch the news in the morning just to get a sense of what the day’s weather will be like, and how it will affect us. By watching the news it’s like we are only reading the headlines in the newspaper rather than being in a discussion of depth and hearing all of the details.
By the time I got to the end of the book, I believed Postman’s ultimate prediction of amusing ourselves to death. He made a really strong prediction for the future which surprised me because this was written around 22 years ago. While not all people are obsessed by entertainment, this could come true. His writing has caught me in the middle between denial and the truth. I’m in denial because I don’t want to be associated with the type of people who spend their time focused on entertainment and technology, but the truth is I do enjoy technology and entertainment. I believe that if we all aren’t careful, we will be obsessed with entertainment and technology because now it is even incorporated in schools. In our high school there are TV’s and computers in almost every classroom, and there are a couple of classrooms filled with computers.
4 comments:
I really enjoyed hearing a different opinion on Neil Postman's book. i feel the same way about not wanting to be one of those people obsessed with technology, but i know that I am. I also liked how you explained how he persuaded you by the end of the book to accept his point of view. Nobody really understands a subject unless the look at both sides. Good job!
found that your comment on famous names was very true. After all, what makes a Coach purse better from a Wal Mart purse? Essentially the difference is in the name. It seems like Neil Postman is using an entertainment tecnique to get our attention on what he has to say about the media. Great point!
I think it is interesting how you thought about Postman dropping famous names as a form of entertainment. It's very true! I love how your ideas are different from what everyone else wrote.
I liked how you touched on the fact that Postman does use famous names and techniques that he criticized others for using. I found on my part that there were parts of the book that I didn't agree with or couldn't understand because I felt that to a certain point some of what he was saying was contradictory or hypocritical. I really liked your post, it got me thinking about the book in different ways. Good job!
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