As I am thinking about the validity of Amusing Ourselves to Death, I wonder how Neil Postman could possibly know that a technological revolution like this was coming? He basically made a prediction about the social effect that television would have on our society. 1985 wasn't that long ago, but the advancements, not only in television, but in all areas of technology, have been substantial. Before I read this book, I really didn't know how television affected our lives, but I now know how influential television really is on the human mind.
Neil Postman displays a very peculiar writing style in this book that is almost like a person standing in front of you telling you his opinions. This style makes him more believeable and more interesting to read. But even besides his style is his use of rhetorical stratagies. One of the main points that I find to be a metaphor is that the news that is delivered to us via television is actually entertainment, which seems so contradictory to me but is actually true. He uses reasons like the upbeat music, perfectly groomed people, and short presentation time for each story to explain his reasoning for the statement. I also found a similie when he told us that how humans communicate, which is now through technology, sets the basis for how we think. So when technology became such a huge part of our society, it affected our communication and thought process. This book was strewn with rhetorical stratagies the helped Neil Postman get his ideas across.
On the subject of validity, I find myself believing and agreeing with what he is saying. One way he persuades me is through the historical knowledge he displays about typography. He tells about literacy rates during the typographic period (being at a high point of 85-90 percent in men) and how all classes of people were literate and read newspapers constantly as a basis of information until the telegraph broke the reign of newspapers. The telegraph made it posssible to know nonsense news from places you didn't care about. The amount of historical information was really important in my persuasion. He also persuaded me by talking about how technology has physically affected every medium. Newspapers and magazines are running more ads, television news is a perfect environment (no matter how upsetting the story, they are always smiling), radio focuses more on music, and even such aspects as religion and schooling are all being affected; all for the reason to be more aesthetically pleasing or more entertaining. The physical aspects are all ones that I can see everyday.
When considering the projected audience for this book, I think it was written for the people of twenty years ago. As true as it might be of the current state of our society, it can't really change what's happened. It's like a mirror into out own technological and media world, but we're too far gone to change the reflection.
Overall, this book was far more amusing than I thought it would be, and I enjoyed learning about our society's technological developments. I do believe Neil Postman was trying to warn us about how so much technology would affect us, just no one took him serious enough to do anything about it.
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3 comments:
i really enjoyed reading your review of the book. I found it both intriguing and true. Postman did write this book for people 20 years ago, but his predictions of how technology would advance is eerily accurate. GOOD JOB BUDDY! :)
I personally agree with everything you wrote about. The way he wrote this gave the impression that he was an adverage guy just telling you what he believes. Also agree that hes valdility is scary! His prediction was absolutly correct. Nice job!
I mostly agree with your statement about the intended audience. It's true that his intended readers were from about two decades ago, but I still think that his argument does relate to our generation, because of the way the media has affected us. But one thing is for sure, Postman's argument isn't going to change the way our society is now.
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