It has come to my attention that since Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985, some of his ideas may be a bit outdated. One idea that I'd like to discuss is the computer.
Postman completely brushes the computer aside as a possible contender to disassemble our culture. He argues that television will bring about the death of our culture and completely ignores the underused home computer. Now the computer is probably just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, as the television. It is also equally accessible.
The television gave birth to such atrocities as the political commercial, televised religion, entertaining education, and The Simple Life. On the other hand, the computer has all of the features of a television and more. Not only can you watch TV online, but you can do it while socializing on Myspace, or AIMing your best friend, or downloading movies. It also has the features of a typographic culture. You can type up your homework or read a book online. It also combines typographic and televised discourse. If you have ever visited sparknotes.com you will know what I'm talking about. It has the brief, attention-grabbing, dumbed down aspects of a televised discourse as well as the literary aspects of a typographic discourse.
If all this doesn't seem like it will result in us amusing ourselves to death, then I don't know what does. The computer and the televison are locked in a mortal fight to the death for who gets to destroy our culture and it seems to me that the computer is winning.
Vectorbeam Doom
1 hour ago
5 comments:
I don't mean to attack you, sir, but do you yourself find political commercials, televised religion, and entertaining education atrocious, or are you simply spewing out what you've read?
I ask only because it seems many of my fellow bloggers seem to be rehashing Huxley's and/or Postman's opinions rather than creating their own, or even interperting said authors uniquely. Not to say that there's anything terribly wrong with that, as it showcases that, indeed, you read it, but I find it repetitive and hurtful to the conversations that can be potentially utilized through this blog.
Again, I don't mean to personally attack you, as I've seen this throughout my blogging experience here, I merely mean to question how many of us actually agree with Postman/Huxley, and how many of us are afraid to disagree.
Of course, your prophesizing of the computer's ultimate plague-like spread is spot-on. While many aspects of the computer are helpful [I mean, c'mon, computers basically RUN our lives. Airplanes, bank accounts, personal information, etc etc], the computer will probably spell out our demise eventually when we offer it TOO much of ourselves.
Humans and our power struggles, eh?
P.S. Por favor, don't take the 3/4 of my comment personal. Truly, I didn't mean it to be. I'm just curious is all.
Keith, you do have a valid point that the internet is potentially much more dangerous than that of the television. Yet, the television is in a way much more far reaching. The television is much more accessible than the computer, mainly because it requires almost no skill to operate or understand. Also, the internet is not available to everyone, but since most of television is broadcast, people do not need anything special to see any programs. Also, as Postman indicated, the television is more engaging because of the way it combines sound and imagery to make words largely unnecessary. The computer does not lend itself as easily to imagery as the television does, largely in part because the computer requires some focus, while the television is mindless watching.
Oh, and a note of clarification on Postman note discussing the topic of the internet. In 1985, the Mac computer was only one year old, and the World Wide Web as we know it wasn't even created. Postman probably did not see the dangers of the internet because it was not there.
-Sejal Shah
In response to Robert's comment, I was simply stating the attrocities of television from Postman's point of view. What was stated about television did not represent how I actually feel. I am ashamed to say that I am semi-addicted to television and love all aspects of it. This can be seen in a comment I made about a previous blog written by Angeline entitled "Educational Shows" on August 14.
On the other hand, the ideas about the computer do represent my personal opinion. I do believe that the computer will destroy our culture before the television does; however, this does not mean that I enjoy the computer any less than the next person.
I am sorry if I came off a bit repetitive in my statements about television. From now on I will try to be clearer with my ideas. I also appreciate you bringing this point up because it makes for good, intellectual conversation.
Computers seem to bring together some of the qualities of the printed word and televesion. It allows for the same amount of entertainment as T.v. as well as more "space" to hold ideas. But Ms. Sweick had brought up a point way back in 8th grade while comparing books and t.v. She kind of restated Postman's theory of the content and the form, but also explained how television requires almost no thought, and the same can be said of the computer. You can write and converse with others while becoming distracting with the entertaining aspects of it, and it just defeats the whole purpose.
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