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Summary Of Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman

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Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman discusses how technology changed the world forever. Technology is not just defined as radio, internet, and phones; it also is defined as television and commercials. Television is a machine that has no inherent medium and a medium that is the environment that the machine creates (Postman 84). Television is used in modern times for entertainment/humor, information/news, and a way to advertise products to thousands of people at once. Television changes the way we view people and ideas in programs, competitions, and (especially), in politics. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman argues that “technology has a bias of its own” and technology of television also has a bias (Postman 84-85). Television can …show more content…

With the exciting music, good looks/amiability of the cast, and the vivid footage, commercials appeal to the viewer, often times more than the actual shows (Postman 87). Commercial times average about 15-20 seconds and the times rarely go above 30-60 seconds (Postman 130). Quick images and short messages stimulate the mind and people begin to accept what they are seeing as the right (and best) choice (Postman 131). Commercials are about appealing to the audience, not advertising the product (Postman 128). Showing images of cute kittens, motivated runners, and yummy food excite the viewer, causing them to believe ideas (mythical or realistic) and force people to buy without thinking. In the same way, politics are often displayed to people in cute, funny, or imaginative ways to cause voters to vote on a candidate without really thinking through ‘why should I vote for this guy’ thought process. Television commercials are the “chief instrument in creating the modern methods of presenting political ideas” and provide advertising in politics, clothing commercials, and even ads like cat food commercials (Postman

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Kathy Bates, creepy kids and the TurboTax commercial Different commercials contain the variety of the content. Making existing, productive as well, as an emotional commercial can cost, up to thousand, million or even billion dollars, especially in a present time. Nowadays, common attributes that the marketing merchandisers are trying to put in the advertisements involves different sorts of humor, fear, joy, fear mainly relying on a subject that needs to be sold or generally promoted at all. Commercials may also appeal to the season or the holiday coming up during that specific period, occurring especially on the Christmas, Halloween or generally in the summer time.

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In the reading “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman, the most surprising aspect is when he talks about how people do not remember anything they watched on television. According to Postman, Stern said 51 percent of viewers could not recall a single item of news a few minutes after viewing a news program on television” (p152). This is surprising because I believe that a lot of people could recall the news from television, especially when the anchor mention the news story more than once. One time before a commercial break and when the anchor is talking is about it. And when there is breaking news, the anchor spends most of the newscast talking about the topic.

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The choice to create short commercial was based around flexibility and audience, both television and Internet holds. Studies show that TV ads are resurfacing for different reasons that are good for advertiser. According to CBS Corp.’s chief research officer David Poltrack and other staff members, “ people are not craving a world without advertising. Audiences don’t like ads that aren’t relevant to them. But they enjoy ads that are relevant to them.”

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The Overuse of Television Kameron G Loyd BYU-Idaho  During an average week, how much television does the average child watch? Parents, educators, and concerned citizens alike would be appalled at the answer of 1,480 minutes (BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co.). They would also be revolted by the statistic that 54% of four to six year olds would rather spend time watching television instead of spending time with their fathers (BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co.). In 1984, Neil Postman saw how devastating television watching was becoming to the culture of America, and gave a speech to the literary community at the 1984 Frankfort Germany Book Fair entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death” which deals directly with this monolithic issue. Although the speech and subsequent article, published in Et Cetra, were directed at the publishers, writers, illustrators, etc., all those who read this article can also benefit from Postman’s overarching desire to decrease the hours of mind-numbing television watching.

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In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman makes no secret of his contempt for television. It is easy to draw a parallel between that and Jon Stewart's disdain for CNN, which he expressed freely during appearances on Crossfire and Larry King Live. Similar to how Postman felt about television, Stewart felt about CNN: each man felt that that form of media (???? Figure out the right word choice here) was causing more harm to society than it was serving the public good. When Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980, he did so in order to occupy a niche that was not being filled by television programmers.

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Neil Postman in Chapter 1 of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" aims to show how the television can manipulate a person 's decision in politics, religion, education and turn those into entertainment. Even today Postman’s ideeas stand strong and it is true that if an information is entertaining the viewer will not look at the autenticity or what the origins of it are. Probably as expected, the more the technology advances, the more the manipulation from the television is taking place. This is done by: changing how people think, making their brain numb by not allowing them to have an opinion and interfering in their family life and in people decision-making process. The only way to save ouselves from living under the control of the television is simply

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