In both Postman's and Huxley's books, we can see that the sources of entertainment, such as the television, soma, and sex, fulfill the society's needs but the consequences of such entertainment are the suffering of the society that leads to death thus, “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” However, I ponder whether there is a source of entertainment that does not have any negative consequences to our society; if there is a solution to our problem of amusing ourselves to death. Postman suggests though that the solution is “our understanding [of] the politics and epistemology of media” (163). Is there another solution thought that contains entertainment, a form of entertainment that can amuse us and make us love and live life rather than death?
Do all forms of entertainment contain both positive and negative effects to the community? If not so, then what form of entertainment can have only positive effects to our community that can make amusing ourselves to love and life?
3 comments:
These days, chances are that everything that we consider entertaining has a negative effect on our society. When was the last time you turned off the television to read a book, without it being required? If you have, was it based on the lastest television show? All our methods of wholesome entertainment have been tainted by the media. Everything that has had meaning before in the past has been altered to make us amused without the slightest bit of hard work.
I think all forms of entertainment contain both positive and negative effects depending on the situation. If you watch an educational program you might get something out of it, but if you watch useless shows like the ones on mtv or degrassi it can have a negative influence on you. Sesame Street might have a positive influence to a child, but when the child grows up, he wouldn't find studying or learning fun at all without music and child humor entertainment. A positive effect entertainment has on us is that there are some shows like jeopardy that asks lots of intelligent questions, and the contestants are expected to answer back correct. Other shows like Family Feud test your general knowledge.
-Rishabh Mehta
I think all forms of entertainment contain both positive and negative effects. I believe that the newer the medium is, the worse its negative effect becomes. With television, a person can spread bad news orally and visually. Now, with the internet, a person can do the same thing, but with print to support it. Space and time get shorter and faster with each new medium invented.
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