Amusing Ourselves To Death

I wake up in the morning, take a shower and get dressed and packed for school. Between eating breakfast and trying to remember where I left my shoes; I flip on the TV. Myself and millions of other Americans do the same every single day. As soon as our 42 inch flat screen plasma TVs’ warm up we are instantly assaulted with images of death, war, murders and the weather. This need for information drives us to succumb to the “god” of knowledge, The Today Show. More and more Americans use the TV as not only a way to stay informed, but as a way to silence their children, a so called “cheap” babysitter. In Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he foreshadows how TV will affect the culture and society in the future, and for the most part it has come true.

Look at your own life everywhere you go there is a TV; Home, school, and even in churches. There is no way to escape it, save if you join a commune. Just recently Burlington Edison High School has switched from giving school wide announcements over the intercom, a completely verbal form of communication which Mr. Postman suggests is the most effective way of communicating, to having them read on a video feed. This is done to give the students something to watch as well as listen to in hopes of getting the information to the school more effectively. This is just one more place were TV has planted itself in our daily lives.

Mr. Postman used many rhetorical devices in his book. A major one that is relevant to me is foreshadowing events to come. Many of his predictions came true; like the fact that TV has become an essential element in everyone’s’ lives. TV is every where. Let’s just hope I doesn’t get worse.