The news is like a talk show, with music, and visual effects designed to increase ratings as much as possible. He points out that television today is simply entertainment. His contention is simple enough: as the vehicle for information changes from typography (the written word) to things like television and the internet, it will fulfill what Aldous Huxley feared in his book the Brave New World, that namely information will be trivialized to the point that a civilization will destroy itself through lethargy. Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death was a prophetic look at the way the changes in media affects an entire civilization.
Neil postman amusing ourselves to death full#
Postmand scratches the surface God covers it all! Read full review Need a wholesome plan for marriage, child-rearing, home life, business, education, the future? You'll find it all in God's word. Our lack of common-sense and wisdom concerning family life and child-rearing is directly related to our reluctance to read and understand the best-selling book of all time: The Bible. Our entertainment was mostly self-generated and involved interaction with other living people. Evenings were spent in the backyard playing hide-n-seek games with the neighborhood kids. Bike riding was the preferred mode of transportation to the swimming hole or to our ball games (with usually NO adults in attendance). Summer mornings were spent doing chores, weeding or hoeing the garden hot afternoons were spent in the shade with books, dolls or toy cars or trucks. "Back in my day" board games and toys (usually requiring a sibling or parent to complete the deal!) were the expected gifts under the Christmas tree or at birthday parties. Car-makers now design vehicles to accommodate "living" on the road: drop-down video monitors for movies in the back-seat to keep children "entertained." Dragging kids to lessons and sports and clubs is providing a childhood rather than one-on-one interactions (reading, playing a board game, washing & drying dishes while quizzing on math facts). Parents lack common-sense and doubt their own abilities, rely too much on magazine "experts" with strange ideas about child-rearing. Constantly having their visual and auditory senses barraged with stimulating pictures and sounds. Up to this point they've been trained, nay educated, to the world by noise and graphics. Sadly when they land in first grade they are expected to sit quietly, to contemplate the lines of forming letters and numbers, and to keep silent.
Gone are the quiet and pleasant times for little ones snuggling on Mother's lap to read stories-stories that year-by-year have more complex plot lines.Īt very few stops along the way to attending school are children encouraged to sit quietly and contemplate their world in peace or beauty-everything is about movement and color and noise and action. The infant is thereby trained to interact with the TV, thus to NEED excitement and entertainment in order to "learn." Toddlers and preschoolers are parked in front of computer games to supposedly increase their IQ's and to prep for school-again with visual stimulation and movement.
Many babies are plopped in an infant seat in front of a television with a supposedly "educational" video running and have very little adult-child interactions throughout their day. Consider the many mothers who dump their few-weeks'-old infants or toddlers in less-than-ideal daycare situations. I believe that the rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism, hyperactivity and/or attention deficits (disorders having to do with the ability to concentrate) are connected to the use of NON-STOP visual stimulation of infants. This book is a well-documented discourse of the moral decay of our country and our need to be constantly entertained. Concerns about our decreasing ability to use higher level thinking skills when our visual appetite is only satisfied with appealing colors and movement. Postman does an excellent job of pointing out our increasing need for visual stimulation whether via television, video or gaming on-line or at home.