Amusing Ourselves to Death Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Must reading for the media-saturated culture. More necessary and prescient than when it was first published in 1984.

Essential reading for anyone who consumes media.

a compelling read that examines how technology alters public discourse and shapes culture and communication. postman scrutinizes the impact of television on society and how it fundamentally portrays everything as entertainment and hence trivializes information.

Postman draws some frightening parallels between the visions of Huxley and the reality of TV in the 80's. Thing is, Postman couldn't have foreseen us watching TV on our iPods and computers and cell phones. In short his insightful book describes how we turn off our thinking and turn on TV. Not even the most serious documentary or news show round table discussion can be taken seriously because...more

Postman draws some frightening parallels between the visions of Huxley and the reality of TV in the 80's. Thing is, Postman couldn't have foreseen us watching TV on our iPods and computers and cell phones. In short his insightful book describes how we turn off our thinking and turn on TV. Not even the most serious documentary or news show round table discussion can be taken seriously because TV filters it through the lens of entertainment, right down to music that dictates the mood. The viewer cannot refute an argument, make any kind of rebuttal, and TV likes it that way. Postman talks about TV co-opting everything: politics, religion, serious thought and philosophy. It is a very bleak picture indeed, but very real and very accurate.   hide

If I were a really sensational teacher, I would have all my American Culture seminar students read this as a class requirement. Postman's best work. Recommended: read the chapter where he writes about the atrophy of political discourse -- how people were accustomed to hearing, reading (and uttering) complex, paragraph-length sentences in the mid-19th century, and today, we're used to (and base...more

If I were a really sensational teacher, I would have all my American Culture seminar students read this as a class requirement. Postman's best work. Recommended: read the chapter where he writes about the atrophy of political discourse -- how people were accustomed to hearing, reading (and uttering) complex, paragraph-length sentences in the mid-19th century, and today, we're used to (and base our voting decisions on) sound-bytes like, "Where's the beef?" Postman's assertion that A. Huxley's "Brave New World" vision of a dystopian future is more likely than Orwell's "1984" is remarkably prescient. The "pop-up" world is here, and most of us don't even know it. This book will remove the scales from your eyes.   hide

Postman discusses the parallells between the worlds of huxley and orwell. One in which big brother is always watching and controlling anything meaningful, and another in which the meaningful is drowned in a sea of irrelevence. Postman argues that Huxley's interpretation of the future was correct, in pointing to the growth of a new communication meduim called TV, a medium which sells you...more

Postman discusses the parallells between the worlds of huxley and orwell. One in which big brother is always watching and controlling anything meaningful, and another in which the meaningful is drowned in a sea of irrelevence. Postman argues that Huxley's interpretation of the future was correct, in pointing to the growth of a new communication meduim called TV, a medium which sells you everything, and which possess very little intelligent discourse, and slowly erodes our capacity for critical thinking. This book is excellent.   hide

This is a solid but slightly immoderate critique of how TV works to change the intellectual climate by changing the paradigm of of our discourse. Some of Postman's evidence is flimsy in terms of how it relates to his argument but the overall thrust is damning in the extreme. Turn of the tube. It really is bad for you.

Kill your TV.

I need to re-read this... I read it in college, and it's pretty amazing. The premise of the book is that totalitarian society is more likely to follow the pattern of Brave New World than 1984, even though 1984 is regarded as the more sinister vision of the two. Basically, Postman is right. We're all on drugs, and most everyone is more interested in being entertained than in wiretapping and...more

I need to re-read this... I read it in college, and it's pretty amazing. The premise of the book is that totalitarian society is more likely to follow the pattern of Brave New World than 1984, even though 1984 is regarded as the more sinister vision of the two. Basically, Postman is right. We're all on drugs, and most everyone is more interested in being entertained than in wiretapping and other flagrant abuses of power. As long as the TV stays on, people are more interested in tuning out than in tuning in. Thus, we end up with the current sorry state of affairs.   hide