In Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, he discusses how improvements in technology have taken over our lives. Even though this book was written over thirty years ago, the contents discussed in the book can still relate to us today. Postman uses a sophisticated tone throughout the book that made it much harder for me to understand. I often found myself having to reread chapters in order for me to comprehend the main idea.
In chapter two, Postman says that "the printing press makes rather stringent demands on our bodies as well as our minds" (25). He is trying to explain how we are being brainwashed by technology, especially television. Before the media was more advanced, newspapers and books were frequently used; however, with technology taking over, we do not care much about reading from the old fashioned book or newspaper because it would be much more simple to pull out our phone and google it. Postman is trying to explain that we are depending too much on these items. What do you guys think?
Esmeralda Orozco
I agree with what you're saying because I too believe that we depend on technology a lot in our every day lives. There have been so many advancements to technology that make our tasks easier, making us rely on it and depend on more ways to improve it. Our world has become very materialistic as most of us may not realize since that is all we have been used to, but it is an example of how we are evolving.
ReplyDeleteI think Postman's quote is relating to the effectiveness of the printing press. Before the mass spur of technology, it is true that we mostly relied on the printing press, telegraphy, and photography. As years have passed, technology has become so vastly developed that we are ahead of ourselves now. His quote seems to give the notion that the printing press evoked us to more forcefully use our bodies and minds in a sense to develop more knowledge in outputting more content. As Postman demonstrates the uses of these items throughout the book, he kind of gives the negativity of television. It is fair to say that technology has had detrimental and helpful parts upon humanity, but the world operates too fast to stop where we want to go. Later in the book, Postman emphasizes how reading from books, and other written sources may be more beneficial to grasping the gist of the information. Rather than to look it up online, he says that the information may not be accurately told. I believe that both sources of the written and online can be heavily relied on.
ReplyDeleteOur present society is extremely dependent on technology without a doubt. As I am typing this reply, I am using my laptop as well as watching television and looking back at my cell phone constantly for text messages while my mom sits across from me playing games on her iPad. Technology is everywhere and as it advances more and more, we seem to be using it an seeing it more and more. Instead of hailing taxis on the streets or walking around the city, we use our mobile devices to call a cab or take an Uber. Instead of going out and seeing our friends in person we use social media to interact and play Words With Friends instead of actually going out and communicating with them face to face. Though it is absolutely helpful, it is a shame to see how much our community has come to depend on the basis of technology; however, the progression and evolvement of technology is, for the most part, highly beneficial, and so it is only inevitable that our society shifts and changes to meet the needs of our ever-changing technology as well.
ReplyDeleteActually this isn't true we're reading books now more then we ever have, but yes newspapers and pamphlets are definitely dying. I think that books and pamphlets and newspapers were just as "brain washing" as technology. That's such a bad phrase, I think it should say influential. You can't put the entirety of modern technology under a bad connotation.
ReplyDeleteI definitely do agree with you stating that we are very brainwashed by technology. Before technology, newspapers, books, and papers were the only way for people to receive information. However, technology has made it much more convenient to access knowledge. For example, if I were to have to research a topic, I most likely wouldn't go through the effort to search through papers because it's much more complicated. Technology has made everyday tasks much simpler, which results in todays society heavily relying on it.
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