Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

In Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, he claims that media, especially television, is having an adverse effect on human values and eroding critical thinking skills. Postman primarily focuses on the effect of television on politics and religion. He begins by presenting historical facts in the first part of the book, and then he continues to describe the effects of media in American life in the second part of the book. Postman believes that media has begun to control the human mind. Therefore, he argues that humans need to learn how to combat the negative effects of media. He also argues that humans need to control media before it completely takes over our lives. Postman presents a factually supported, but biased argument in which he views media to be a rival of American advancement.

In the beginning of the book, Postman establishes the idea of media as a metaphor. This means that media can be viewed as what is important to a society. Postman is very influenced by Marshall McLuhan’s theory of the “medium is the message” (8). Postman then applies this theory to his own findings to form an argument against television. He tries to describe the extent to which media controls the messages we receive. For example, the television is continuously trying to persuade consumers to buy certain unnecessary products through a variety of manipulative techniques. Postman argues that Americans need to learn to differentiate between the different types of schemes used by the television to trick us. He concludes this idea of media being a metaphor by claiming that the media is changing and influencing the American culture.

He discusses the differences between the types of mediums used to convey messages. The types of mediums Postman discuss...

... middle of paper ...

...to monitor media. However, they can only manage content not the effect that media has on our brains.

Postman has valid points when he claims that television and media are destroying the American society. Postman is right to assume that television is manipulating the way Americans think. However, television can provide Americans with both right and wrong morals. Since this book was written in 1985, Postman could not have predicted the influence technology has on the current American population. The theory he applies to television is similar to the theory he probably would have used on modern day media. The dependency we have on media reiterates Postman’s thesis that Americans are losing critical thinking skills and basic human values.

Works Cited

Postman, N. (1986). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York, NY: Penguin.