In 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death came out. In it, Neil Postman criticizes the idea of “The News of The Day”. Most of it is packaged for entertainment and is not actionable. This was true when...
In 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death came out. In it, Neil Postman criticizes the idea of “The News of The Day”. Most of it is packaged for entertainment and is not actionable. This was true when the book was written, and the news was just on tv and radio and in print. Today with the internet and smartphones we are constantly fed info that we rage about and can’t do anything about. Frankly it’s hell.
Postman talked about how television is visual, so it would tend to show a car chase instead of presenting ideas like a budget discussion. Now we are flooded by both. This has absolutely been weaponzed by bad actors, especially trump who constantly floods the zone with nonsense so even people in position to act are unable to respond.
I read this one last year, and was shocked by how fresh it reads ~40 years later. At some point, Postman writes (translated from pt_BR; maybe not exactly this, but you get the idea): If you...
I read this one last year, and was shocked by how fresh it reads ~40 years later. At some point, Postman writes (translated from pt_BR; maybe not exactly this, but you get the idea):
The average duration of a scene on television is only 3.5 seconds, so the eye never rests, there is always something new to see. In addition, television offers viewers a variety of subjects, requires minimal skills to understand them, and aims largely at emotional gratification.
If you replace “television” with “TikTok” or “reels”, the sentence doesn't need any other change to be modernized.
Well put, imo, and to TV we can now add internet and social media which further strips the nuance from the topics while simultaneously giving every human on Earth their own microphone for the...
Well put, imo, and to TV we can now add internet and social media which further strips the nuance from the topics while simultaneously giving every human on Earth their own microphone for the first time in human evolution. Our minds are not "designed" to live in such an ocean of human consciousness, especially when warped by capitalist greed.
In 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death came out. In it, Neil Postman criticizes the idea of “The News of The Day”. Most of it is packaged for entertainment and is not actionable. This was true when the book was written, and the news was just on tv and radio and in print. Today with the internet and smartphones we are constantly fed info that we rage about and can’t do anything about. Frankly it’s hell.
Postman talked about how television is visual, so it would tend to show a car chase instead of presenting ideas like a budget discussion. Now we are flooded by both. This has absolutely been weaponzed by bad actors, especially trump who constantly floods the zone with nonsense so even people in position to act are unable to respond.
I read this one last year, and was shocked by how fresh it reads ~40 years later. At some point, Postman writes (translated from pt_BR; maybe not exactly this, but you get the idea):
If you replace “television” with “TikTok” or “reels”, the sentence doesn't need any other change to be modernized.
Well put, imo, and to TV we can now add internet and social media which further strips the nuance from the topics while simultaneously giving every human on Earth their own microphone for the first time in human evolution. Our minds are not "designed" to live in such an ocean of human consciousness, especially when warped by capitalist greed.