Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves To Death Analysis

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Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves To Death examines the effect of television on American society and arrives at the idea that television has forever changed the way that Americans think and react towards events and that these changes have been negative on our society. I believe in the majority of what Postman is saying, however, a flaw in Postman’s argument is that he loses his objectivity when discussing television and it’s effects. Postman makes it pretty clear that he doesn’t like or trust televised information and because of that he shows a bit of bias in his choice of examples for the negative effects of television. A big one that I found was his comment in chapter ten where he said that Sesame Street doesn’t teach children numbers and letters, and…show more content…
Television is the closest to providing a simulation of real human experience using sound and sight more than any other medium. It stands to reason that this is a legitimate way that people learn – possibly finding it easier that reading because it is closer to a real life event. Also, education in the typographic world was not as unbiased as Postman suggests in his text. I believe that there were fewer opportunities to seek out more than one version or opinion on a specific matter whereas today, you are able to find thousands of varying opinions on any one topic with a click of a button. For example, television in social movements of the late twentieth century like the Civil Rights movement was key in reaching America’s public. Similarly, because of television, we have the opportunity to look at videos from different regions of the world. We are given an opportunity to see what makes people all over the world so different and also what makes those people the same. In this way we can each develop a unique understanding of our world and our history – not just
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