Rating: 
Summary: Dated Nature Enhances the Point
Review: This book is seventeen years out of date as I write this, which is ancient history in the modern media. There are references to TV shows, political scandals, and personalities that the current generation of TV-raised children won't even recognize. To many of our jaded citizens today, this book might as well have been written in the late Cretaceous era.And yet, somehow, that age helps to increase the book's appeal. Neil Postman, who acknowledges his debt to Marshall McLuhan, isn't just another pathetic Jeremiah wailing against the woes of this earth; his dark predictions have been proven true by the passage of the years. Indeed, as he wrote before the Internet became a mass medium, he seems at times far too conservative. If you've gotten this far into a review of this book, chances are you've already come to the conclusion that TV is a destructive influence. It's hard to live in this world and not recognize this fact; but anyone who doesn't already think so isn't likely to show this much interest. What this book offers is a point-by-point examination of exactly what losses we've suffered, and ultimately a cool consideration of why we probably can't regain what we've lost. Because most of us don't have the connections or the research time Postman does, we don't know the half of how bad our society has become as a result of TV and its connected media. Postman is able to explain it to us. The effects on our political arena, our religious life, our interpersonal relationships, and the education of our children are so deeply sunk into the fabric of our culture, Postman suggests, that the damage cannot now be undone. We will continue on our current destructive path because people won't get off unless they want to, and TV has the effect of not making people want to get off. ... This book won't help you stave off the death slide. It's doubtful anything can. But it will help you understand, as the world goes to hell around you, how we got on this track, and understanding why we're all damned is better than nothing.
Rating:
Summary: A much needed exploration into the philosophy of media
Review: Occasionally one stumbles across a work which perfectly summarizes an era. For example, we hail the muckracker novels, primarily "The Jungle," as a brilliant picture of the late 19th century in America; likewise, any Jonathan Edwards sermon captures the essence of Puritan New England. But Neil Postman, in "Amusing Ourselves to Death," has created not a picture, but an exposition of the state of America today. That it is an expostion, is extremely important.
Postman's thesis in this brief but articulate book consists of two tenets: (1) The form of communication, to some extent, determines (or is biased toward certain types of) content; (2) Television, as our modern-day uber-form of communication, has biases which are destructive toward the rational mind. TV teaches us to expect life to be entertaining, rather than interesting; it teaches us to expect 8-minute durations of anything and everything (anything else is beyond our attention span); it teach us to be suspicious of argument and discussion, and instead to accept facts at face value.
Furthermore - and, by far, the most important discovery Postman makes in this book - TV teaches us to live a decontextualized life. Just as a TV program has nothing to do with anything before or after it, nor the commericals inside it, we learn to view life as a series of unconnected, random events which are entertaining at best, and bear no significance toward any larger picture.
As a culture, America has lost its ability to integrate experiences into a larger whole; and Postman's explaination for part (not all) of this problem's development makes perfect sense. It certainly is true that the vast majority of Americans are perfectly happy not to develop any sort of framework or philosophy; life is simply life, and one doesn't need to consider it.
Even today's elite students, who are certainly able to integrate lessons and perform well academically, have fallen to this malady; as David Brooks pointed out in his searingly accurate article, "The Organization Kid," (Atlantic Monthly, April 2001) top-notch students no longer attempt to build any sort of moral or philosophical structure from their studies; a life lived in a context, makes no sense to the student who has grown up watching the decontextualized television screen.
It is extremely important that today's Americans take a close look at just what effects the television has had on themselves and their children; Postman's work is dead on target. We have moved, as a nation, from those who seek entertainment as a means to an end (most particularly, rest between productive work), to those who seek entertainment as an end in itself. And, as Huxley realized in Brave New World, this is the undoing of Western civilization - a prosaic fade away into an entertained oblivion. Or, as T.S. Eliot put it in "The Hollow Men," "This is the way the world ends/ not with a bang but a whimper."
Rating: 
Summary: Turn off the TV and read this
Review: Although George Orwell's 1984 is a masterpiece and a literary classic (and quite possibly my favorite book of all time), Postman here expounds on a fact that is all-too-often overlooked: the "Brave New World" of our present modern society more closely resembles the one described in Aldous Huxley's book of the same name than in Orwell's classic. Orwell propesied that we would be beaten down by what we hate; Huxley by what we love. This is exactly what television does. And the sad thing is, most of us don't even know it. This is a book that should be required reading in our present "Age of Show Business", as Postman so succulently puts it. This book is our long-needed wake-up call. Granted, it is somewhat outdated: being published in the mid-80's, it doesn't take into account the advent of the internet (and Postman was clearly wrong about the observations he makes in the book about the potential of the computer.) Nevertheless, this is a real and biting commentary on our present brain-dead society. Aside from shortening our attention spans, zapping our leisure time, and feeding us dumbed-down information in tiny little bite-sized 30-second news segments, television is also doing another thing, something that many of do not realize: it's chainging the very way we think and live our lives. We now live in the Age of Television. It is indisputable. We not only want our education to be entertaining, we expect it - one might even say we REQUIRE it. Aside from any intellectual pretensions which this may bypass, it is degrading our minds to the detriment. Postman hits home when he states in his book that Americans are the most entertained people in the Western World, and the least well-informed. We are led to believe by television news segments (packaged as entertainment, just like the latest sitcom or drama) that we are learning something, when, in fact, we are merely being distracted. As Huxley set forth in Brave New World, the worst form of tyranny (or the best, for the despot) is where you submit to it voluntarily - and you don't even know it's happening. Such is the reality of television. He also points out the fact, which some other reviewers here have failed to notice, that merely turning off the TV does not solve the problem. It has already taken its toll; we are already in its grip. What difference does it make to the TV society as a whole if one solitary person turns their set off? It already affects the way we think and live every day - one might even say it CONTROLS it. This is a very serious proposition, which many of us would take care to notice. The argument seems irrefutable, and there also seems to be no solution. About the only way one can think of us escaping from this predicament is if everyone turns off their TV (you see? - it has gotten to the point where we can't even say the whole word, anymore), reads this book, and wakes up. As a side note, I became aware of this book through Roger Waters album Amused To Death, which was in part inspired by this book. I believe this album to be a musical masterpiece, and reccomend it to anyone who enjoys this book.
Rating:
Summary: Important Start to Exploration of Modern Society
Review: I ran across Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" as part of my research on a paper about Huxley's "Brave New World." I found that Postman already used part of my thesis in this book: that American culture has adapted itself to a BNW-like society, where maximization of profits by a corporate-controlled government supercedes all else (my thesis, not necessarily his). To help this process, the corporate-controlled media provides its own version of the "feelies," news and programs with little-to-no real content and designed to do one thing: entertain and distract (Postman's thesis, and not necessarily mine). Postman rightly addresses several issues in the media, illustrated by the Kennedy-Nixon debates: charisma and beauty win in public opinion over content and reason any time, and television is the medium by which that victory is achieved. Take the 1980s, and Reagan's election (which no doubt served as an inspiration for this book): although Reagan simply repeated catch-phrases with little reasonable thought behind them, his good-natured, "aw-shucks" approach to politics appealed to voters who ignored Reagan's logical flaws (and his scandals) and elected him twice. Postman's book is obviously outdated, with the advent of the Internet, but his thesis has merit, especially in light of America's current "video-game" war against Afghanistan (when you lose one of your character's "lives," the evening news is replete with the tragedy - World War II reported deaths in the thousands each day, and you didn't see mothers and wives dining with the president). However, he never achieves the connection that the media - be it TV news, sitcoms, gameshows, pop music, movies, etc. - is about the ONE PRIMARY RULE of Brave New World (the society, not the book): maximizing profits for corporations and consumption among the commoners. MSNBC, CNN, Fox (Faux) News Channel, and the local news (even the newspapers) - the one thing they have in common is that they are corporate-controlled and therefore are out to make MONEY. It isn't the consumer that allows himself of herself to be duped, since that is all the consumer has ever had to deal with. Truth, in American society, is a commodity, only to be used when that is what people want to hear - and judging by the current state of the nation, not many people care to hear it. "AOTD" is an interesting read, but the reader should use it as a springboard to explore these ideas further. It's a beginning, not an end. Final Grade: B-
Rating: 
Summary: The title explains the problem
Review: This book, which I read for a school-related English course, provides a strong basis for an understanding of the way in which entertainment affects the public. But then Postman goes completely off the deep end. Some of his observations about the way in which entertainment affects the way we can think and quite notably the section on TV News as entertainment are quite interesting and worth reading. However, Postman then seems to adovcate international ignorance. One central part of his argument against watching the News is that no international or global society exists, and perhaps this was more true at the time of the publication of the book than at this time when the world is connected by the Internet. This is representative of the entire problem with this book: Postman brings up a good idea and supports it well but then destroys that by taking his ideas outside the bounds of what is reasonable. Another very interesting aspect of the book seems to be Postman's nostalgia for an age in which he wasn't alive; apparently back when Jefferson was running for president, everyone was literate and intelligent and understood everything about themselves and politics; Postman comes to this conclusion by citing evidence that it was popular to go to long political debates. Postman does himself say that "part" of the appeal of these gatherings was the social contact with other people in a town and with neighboring towns, but apparently that was only a small consideration. Postman seems to imagine that the audience at these events was absolutely silent for hours on end and could follow everything both candidates said about their political stances. It's just obvious to common sense that this image is from Postman's imagination and not based on fact. This is just one example of the faulty logic in Postman's claims. He seems to underestimate the intelligence of individuals and thinks that, if there's a television in your house, you won't be able to ignore it. Well, I'm 17 years old and read in huge quantities. I absorb books. And I also watch TV. I understand more about human nature than Postman seems to because I HAVE THE POWER TO TURN THE TELEVISION OFF. I guess the concept of the off switch on the television never crossed Postman's mind. In any case, this book is probably worth reading for some of the concepts Postman defends successfully. His thesis, however, oversteps the bounds of his evidence. Clearly this man hates television and I can't disagree; most of what's on television isn't worth watching. Unfortunatly, his concept that any written work has more value than everything on television is obviously, when one considers it fully, the product of a personal bias. How is a book that's focused on entertainment better than a television show that's focused on entertainment? Apparently for Postman, the book is better simply because it's on paper.
Rating: 
Summary: Great first 80 pages, then WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!
Review: The first 80 odd pages of the book, where Postman establishes his proposition that the mode of communication shapes what is communicated, how, to whom and the entire perception of the world, is nothing short of brilliant, his expose on the written word, compared to oral, and then the introduction of the telegraph, all ring true and I would consider irrefutable. And then the second half of the book, is where he begins to attack TV, on the grounds that the medium is corrupted, corrupted at the core from its very nature and therefore all communication through it is warped, and since we're all couch spuds, where all warped, the world is gonna blow up and crash into the sun. Now, that leap of faith on the last part may sound, a bit far fetched, but that is literally how his arguement goes. He cites, solitary examples to set precident for entire arguements, one badly mediated debate in 1984, has sent all political debate on TV to hell from now until eternity. Postman attacks Sesame Street, PBS NewsHour, NOVA, I'm sorry but I could read books at 4 years of age because of Sesame Street. I find almost all of his premises flawed, and it seems to me, the man simply hates Television, which is all fine and good, but then he tries to disguise it in some messiah trip where he's gonna save us from the remote control. Here is the second part of the book in a nutshell - You cannot stop watching TV, even if you wanted you lack the willpower. You believe everything you see on TV, not just the content, but also the presentation. Because commercials are short, your attention span is short. News presented on TV is entertainment and does not affect your life in any conceivable way. You do not care. God hates you. You suck and now you must die! TV IS SATAN'S LOVE CHILD.
I will not say that TV isn't full of crap, cause it is, but postman primarily speaks to the monopolization of TV by the Big Three...now it's the big 3000 (cable, sattelite) and talk radio has resurged big time since 1984, the internet abounds, and Books still sell millions of copies!
Other pet peeves with the book, any book, any reading is good - harlequin romance therefore is more educational than frontline documentaries. Radio is completely ok, nevermind, shock jocks and howard stern. Before TV everyone was a literate genius and could converse on Plato at the drop of hat. I'm sorry Mr. Postman, there were dirty graffiti in the senate bathroom of Roman Empire, Plato was a gay man who stalked little boys from town to town, Churchhill was a drunk! TV he complains panders to the most common denominator to get the most viewers...I say it's the ultimate democracy, TV is simply the mass distribution of the baseness of human nature, but for godsakes, it's human nature and it's not the device's fault. Dirty books were around and are still around.
Postman, is simply a frustrated man, who sounds like the granddad who complains about kids these days. His thesis sounds more like a rant, with very little to back it up.
Rating:
Summary: Who needs information when there is entertainment
Review: Although over a decade old, the book exposes some serious problems of the modern society in relation to the media with the emphasis on how destructive influence of the electronic media for the democratic discourse in our society really is. Postman concisely explains how media influenced and are influencing our cognition (yearning more and more not for facts but entertainment) and offers simple and yet incredible solution to the problem.
Rating:
Summary: A Flawed Gem, but worth reading
Review: I think Postman's conclusion about how our era has fallen into a Huxleyan era is dead on target. I think his attack on Television, however, is misguided. His argument from television relies mainly on a comparison of the mindsets of the people before and after the Telegraph - which is a central invention in his book, off of which the Television is really an extension. However, in comparing the two types of people, I believe he fails to take into account that there are two possible conclusions. 1)It is the medium which distorts any message 2)It is the message which distorts the medium, which in turn makes people expect the same kinds of messages through that particular medium. His attack on television requires #1 to be the case, however, his examples seem to support the truth of #2, becuase he doesn't show how the medium distorts the message. All his examples rely on examples, which only show that the message that goes through the medium is distorted, not necessarily by the medium, but by the senders themselves. If programs must be entertaining, it is because people demand entertainment now. Overall, Postman's book is an intriguing writing, but then again, I would criticize Postman's use of "Post Hoc" logic, where he assumes that just because societie's "dumbing" started after the innovation of the telegraph, therefore it was caused by the telegraph (and later television). That is faulty logic, and nothing in his book supports the connection between television and today's society.
Rating:
Summary: Postman Was Right
Review: Postman's book is among the most important analyzes of public discourse in the last 25 years. Everything that he saw about the delivery of news has come true; the dividing line between entertainment and news has been erased. Postman was so clear-headed in his reading of public discourse and unfortunately so "right on" in his predictions. Although the book is over 15 years old, it is still a good starting point in understanding the shift in the ways that we talk about (or don't talk about) events that should matter the most to citizens.
Rating:
Summary: so smart it made me laugh...
Review: I sped through this in about 2 days of reading. I've always heard the argument about television being bad because it avoids realism and important things, so it was interesting to hear that television is at it's worst when it co-opts serious matters like news and education. He wrote this when Reagan was president, and some of his references to presidential IQ really got me laughing. I thought it was great.
|
