I'm currently reading chapter 4 of Postaman's book and I must say it actually has me hooked. I really like the fact that Postman makes the point that anyone from 1985, and anyone from our time period at that, can withstand a speech worth quite a few hours. He writes about the debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas and how it would take very long hours for them to finish. One would speak for an hour and the other for an hour and a half and would vary, both were not accustomed to this because they spoke for much longer periods of time, any one of us would certainly lose interest within the first few minutes. That's the main point that came to mind. We are so use to being entertained that we can barley take a few moments of our time to hear a speech. Even when a speech appears on television our short attention spans do not allow us to watch such torture.
It took Lincoln so long to speak that he advised the audience to " 'go home, have dinner, and return refreshed for four more hours of talk' " (44). If we had been told to go home to refresh ourselves, most of us would have not gone back to hear the rest of the speech. Today we do not have time anymore for such things as "stump speakers" (45) , instead we're trying to get home to watch the latest episode of our favorite television show.
- Marco N.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
It happens all the time. Personally long speeches bore me to death. For instance, we were at my church yesterday attending a program called Summer Kight. When the pastor was going on and on about the bible and things i've heard a billion times, I just put me head down the whole time. My mom noticed, she said "When it comes to hearing the word of God or something useful in your life you won't listen but when it comes to having fun, your eyes get all big and shiny"
I knew it was true so I didn't say anything. Seriously tell me, who will spent their precious evening listening to some pastor preach or watch some dabate on TV (Apart from my parents). I would rather watch my favorite show or do something exciting.
This chapter interested me as well, one of the few that actually did. I for one am actually interested in speeches so it was thrilling to hear that they lasted as long as they used to. I find that hearing another persons point of view and coming back with your own point is how people should converse, rather than someone saying something and another person just saying "oh. well... not really, okay whatever." It doesn't really make for an interesting conversation, and people wonder why they get bored.
The only part I don't undersatand is: If television is supposed to be entertaining and only cares about how many views they get, why do they show speeches if they know that our short attention spans can't handle it?
Let's face it, these days, who wants to hear hours and hours of speeches? Sure, there is that small percentage that would appreciate and benefit from these incredibly long talks, but overall, most would not be interested. I sometimes feel that today's society is incapable of even understanding or staying awake for hours and hours of oral information. Perhaps, in this aspect, today's civilization has degenerated and regressed. Attention spans of teenagers these days is so short that most can hardly stay awake in one hour of class! Throughout society, conversations are even becoming dull, unintelligent, and dim-witted. This problem may not stand out very much, but take a close look and you can realize that this is true. Is modern civilization slowly becoming dumber? Or is technology, such as the internet and television taking over the age-old method of speeches and sharing verbal information? The answer may not be clear, but a complete regression from enjoying and understanding speeches and intelligent converstion seems imminent.
Post a Comment