Amusing Ourselves To Death Summary

"Video killed the radio star. Video killed the radio star. In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone too far." This song from the Buggles muses the exact cultural shift Postman observes in his book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death." In the book, Postman points out the differences in society between a culture whose discourse is delivered by oral and written language, and one whose is delivered by television. He does not take issue with television and technology being used as entertainment, however; he is skeptical of the fact that "Entertainment is the supra-ideology of all discourse on television" (Putman 87). In order to drive home his point of the role television and technology has had on the degradation of the quality of our societies discourse, Putman first characterizes

He spends a little time in ancient history and the importance of oral communication, but quickly moves into early Colonial America ("Typographic America") and the importance of written language. It is the pre-television age of America that Postman is interested in expounding upon, as it is the basis of contrasting with the more visual television culture. Putman paints the early colonials as intellects and lovers of language and literature. The author draws attention to the style, nature, and environment of political debates of early American culture. He contrasts the political culture of the early and modern era describing early political debates as being extremely long and heavy in detail of the days issues. He says the average American public had the attention span to attend the entirety of such events ; and he doubts whether today's public could or would sit through such a spectacle. When thinking about today's most recent debates, Donald Trump's surprising poll numbers seem to support Postman's view of our