Summary Essay of "Amusing Ourselves to Death"
This is a breakdown of Neil Postman's "Amusing ourselves to death"(1985), which must be written to explain the effects that high volume of emails, text messages, video games, and internet television has on the human race and the way we think. In the first chapter of the book "The Medium is the Metaphor" Postman (1985) begins his argument that he presents through out the book. Postman (1985) explains how knowledge is no longer gained from print, but from visual. This change is dramatic and irreversibly and the two print and visual can not accommodate one another. In chapter 2 Postman (1985) lays out a plan for the book. Postman (1985) rants and raves about how television is evil and has…show more content… Postman (1985) explains his digression as central to his purpose to show how "our own tribe is undergoing a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics" (p.13). He is saying that our technology and tools are serving as a type of mind control and we are in deep.
In Chapter 2 "Media as Epistemology Postman (1985) begins to tell us his plans for the book. Epistemology means the theory of knowledge, how we gain and use knowledge. Postman (1985) wants to clear his name of being a snob by insisting that his focus is on epistemology rather than aesthetics. He insists that he not only appreciates junk, but also finds it harmless. He believes that television is at its best when it aims solely to entertain, but that it is at its worst and most dangerous when "its aspirations are high" (p.16). Postman (1985) takes the time to explain what he means by epistemology and the chapter title. He believes that every medium has resonance, for it is a metaphor with large scale implications. In. particular, a medium or technology of communication imposes itself on the way we understand and define truth.
Postman (1985) speaks of truth as a bias for each culture and illustrates some of our own biases. He does not mean to suggest that all means of deriving truth are equal, but only means to
