Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, he discusses the “dangers” of television and elaborates his thoughts about how that specific media was affecting American society. Some of the main points Postman touched on can be compared to the modern media society has now. Postman elaborated that television gained control of American society, which meant that Americans stopped questioning the media and opened the opportunity for fake news to be spread. Americans didn’t know what was real and what was fake because, at the end of the day, everything was for entertainment purposes as Postman expresses. The most important topic he covered was that the media was becoming a curriculum where Americans gained their knowledge and ideals. Today,

It was affecting their knowledge and their ideals because that was the main source that was providing information at the time. As he states “…there is no subject of public interest-politics, news, religion, science, sports – that does not find its way to television.” (Postman 78). In the book, Postman elaborates on how television displaced the written word. Therefore, saying that because television provided everything possible, it was taking control over the other mediums Americans used to know about, such as the printed word. Today, although television isn’t the main media controlling society, not much has changed with Postman's values. One comparison that can be made to Postman's ideas can be done by utilizing two big news stories in American society occurring right now, these include the ban of TikTok which is known as an entertainment app, and yet another school shooting that occurred in Nashville Tennessee on March 27, 2023. Now, these two news stories may seem completely irrelevant to each other at first glance, but upon careful examination, it describes what is occurring in American society. Here is why: TikTok is an entertainment app that does its job of keeping consumers satisfied with the content they provide. However, Congress has found that there are dangers this app is causing. Do the consumers think that this app is heavily affecting them? No, however, because Congress is

Postman expressed that the media was strictly being used for entertainment purposes rather than motivating the viewers to create change. He states that people would see bad news as a conversation starter. He states, “But most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about that cannot lead to any meaningful action.” (Postman 68). Although he criticizes this problem, he understands that that’s what Americans had basically been trained to do. They were trained to take everything shown on television as entertainment only. “Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television. No matter what is depicted or from what point of view, the overarching presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure.” (Postman 87). In modern American society, this can no longer be applied to all Americans, as it is seen that individuals are taking more action against things that happen in society. Again, not ALL individuals take the news put out on the internet as gossip, some take the news and begin strikes, protests, petitions, etc. For example, with the recent school shooting that occurred in Nashville Tennessee, it was seen that young adults went to the capital and protested what they felt about the issue. In an article named, “Downtown group demonstrates against gun violence” it states that “More than a dozen people demonstrated against gun violence in front of the Calhoun County Democrats