Amusing Ourselves to Death

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985), is a scintillating analysis of the effect of television on society by Neil Postman. It has been translated into eight languages and sold some 200,000 copies worldwide.

Television has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of society. In this eloquent, persuasive book, Neil Postman alerts us to the real and present dangers of this state of affairs, and offers compelling suggestions as to how to withstand the media onslaught. Before we hand over politics, education, religion, and journalism to the show-business demands of the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media shape our lives and the ways we can, in turn, shape them to serve our highest goals.

I have not entirely read this book but I enjoy it's insights into what Postman sees in the effect of television's entertainment value as a "soma" for the contemporary world. He sees contemporary mankind surrendering its rights in exchange for entertainment as he criticises this media. The effects of Television, good or bad, have been fortold from the very beginning. Ray Bradbury has said, "I wasn’t worried about freedom. I was worried about people being turned into morons by TV."

With such intensely stimulating entertainment available all around us in our very own living rooms, are we all going to turn into compulsive consumers of mindless entertainment with atrophied souls, stunted emotions and a total inability to interact meaningfully with other human beings, as Bradbury prophesied? I'm not exactally sure this is true but the more and more we consume media the more it will effect us in someway or another whether it be now or in the future we will see a change in our behavior and thoughts. It is important to consume things that are going to make you the person that you want to become. If you don't, you might as well sit around in your pajamas all day watching TV!