Amusing Ourselves to Death

This controversial book, by Neil Postman, talks about the ever changing world of technology and how it effects our culture. Media and culture have a close relationship to one another in today's society. Whatever happens in culture happens in the media and whatever happens in the media happens in culture. Media companies work together to create movies, television shows, and many other forms of media that represent what is happening in society. These are not only to inform the public of what is going on, but as well as to entertain them. Therefore, the companies alter the shows to make them more entertaining. But, when they do this they are giving a false representation of world events and so the public is uninformed about what is going on. Because of this, people don't take news seriously anymore and act as it's a source if entertainment.
Postman frames his arguments with two warnings from Orwell and Huxley. Orwell warns us that we will be defeated by an externally forced oppression. On the other hand, Huxley warns us that we will come to love our oppression. We will take joy to the technologies that feed us information so we don't have to think for ourselves. Postman supports Huxley's case because he believes that people enjoy not having to think.
Different mediums can change certain aspects of a culture. Print as a medium encourages thinking, analyzing, and writing and creates a well knowledge society. They are well informed and have a strong understanding of what is happening in the world. When print is the primary means of communication, then the culture as a whole has a strong public discourse of important issues. Television as a medium is essentially effortless. You don't have to think about anything when you watch a movie or a show, you just sit there watching the television portray images onto the screen. When a commercial comes on the viewer can either like it or dislike the commercial, but they can neither accept or refuse it because there's nothing to accept or refuse.
These arguments I have discussed are not of my own, but of Neil Postman. I, myself, agree and disagree to his opinions. I do agree that people prefer not to think. If you look at most people today, they would rather spend time watching television, playing video games, and going on the computer, then to reading or writing. But, at the same time, people can learn a lot from watching television or going on the computer. Society is changing to a more technologically inclined culture and this is neither good or bad. It is what it is, and we should just go with it and take advantage of it.