Amusing Ourselves to Death Review

Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death discusses a topic our generation rarely even thinks about. That is, how media entertainment has taken over our lives and affected our society.

Throughout the book, Postman uses mostly logos, the appeal to reason, and pathos, the appeal to emotion. He uses many examples that just about everyone is familiar with, including the news, Sesame Street, and politics, to help explain his point of view. He also uses emotion, both his and that he hopes we will feel, to help us understand.

However, he doesn’t use much pathos in the book. He never really explains what credentials he has or what experience he has in this subject. But as the book progresses Postman almost seems to become more credible because his arguments are very reasonable and believable. Like pathos, Postman doesn’t use many schemes or tropes. His writing may be a little more effective if used more rhetorical devices and fewer big words and confusing sentences.

Postman’s purpose for writing this book is clear from the beginning. He wants to inform people of the effects of media entertainment and how it has impacted our lives. The audience he is explaining this to is pretty much everyone because everyone has been affected by the rise of media entertainment, at least a little. However, to narrow that down, he is focusing mainly on the people who grew up in the media entertainment generation and who never experienced life before media entertainment took over.

The author’s ideas and predictions were, at least in my opinion, correct. Our lives are completely controlled by media entertainment, and it has only gotten worse, and in turn, the book more relevant, since the book was published. Until I read this book I had never really realized by the media was really in integral part of my life and everyone’s around me. Even reading Brave New World I never made the connection between that society and ours, but now after reading Amusing Ourselves to Death I not only understand Brave New World better now, I also understand that we need to do something about our lives and the way the media influences what we do and how we act. Postman’s writing and ideas were quit persuasive and informative and this book really brought to light one of the problems in our society that most people don’t acknowledge.