Why Am I BLOGGING About Neil Postman???

Chapter 1

"Indeed, we may have reached the point where cosmetics has replaced ideology as the filed of expertise over which a politician must have competent control" (4).

I agree with Postman here. People today care so much about their appearance and it is almost like that is the only important way to get people to notice and remember you. For example, when people look at magazines or television, they see "perfect" people and want to look just like them, even though those people they look to are weighted down with enormous amounts of makeup to fake looking that good. Any little flaw they have has to be covered by makeup or photo shopped out and people want to look just like that.

Chapter2

"Our written statement would represent the 'truth.' Our oral agreement would be only a rumor" (21).

Again, I agree with Postman. The reason I do is because basically everybody has to have a written contract in order to believe someone. Without a contract, people never believe what the person says they'll do for them. They have to have it in a written statement or what they say is no good.

Chapter 3

"From its beginning until well into the nineteenth century, America was as dominated by the printed word and an oratory based on the printed word as any society we know of" (40-41).

I also agree with this statement. Writing used to be very important to society. It was their main form of communication. Written books and newspapers were very popular; reading a newspaper or a written letter was the way to get news around. Today, people use texting, Facebook, chat rooms, email, etc, which takes the place of written letters. Books also seem to be loosing popularity because more and more people are buying a Kindle.

Chapter 4

"In the 1890's that context was shattered, first by the massive intrusion of illustrations and photographs, then by the nonpropositional use of language" (60).

Postman is right about this. He brings up how advertising has changed. They used to be filled with just information about whatever it is you're buying and you had to read it and understand it. Now, they create advertisements that people don't have to think about, in the form of entertainment. For example, I know some people end up watching the Super Bowl for the commercials. I guiltily admit that I do that. People want to be entertained, even if it is with a poor sales pitch.

Chapter 5

"Everything became every one's business" (69).

This is definitely true about today's society. Facebook is a huge reason. People go on Facebook and feel the need to share exactly what they are doing with the whole world. But it is not only what they are doing, but also anything and everything they have to say, whether it's their opinion on something on TV or the latest gossip; they feel the need to share with everyone.

Chapter 6

"American television, in other words, is devoted entirely to supplying its audience with entertainment" (86-87).

I disagree with this idea. TV may be entertainment, but it is also one of today's society's main sources for information. People watch the news, the history channel, educational programming, or their own local station to be informed about what is going on, what had already happened, or what is supposed to happen.

Chapter 7

"Hampered viewer acceptance means the same thing for television news as it does for any television show: Viewers do not like looking at the performer. It also means that viewers do not believe the performer, that she lacks credibility" (101).

I also disagree with this. When I watch the news, I do not feel like they are lying to me if I don't find them attractive. We shouldn't judge people. That's even in the Bible. Although, people do judge others, I don't find "ugly" news reporters untrustworthy or more untrustworthy than "attractive" reporter.

Chapter 8

"By endowing things with magic, enchantment is the means through which we may gain access to sacredness. Entertainment is the means through which we distance ourselves from it" (122).

Again, I disagree with Postman. Just because we entertain ourselves doesn't make it bad. We should be able to enjoy church and enjoy going, not dread it or fall asleep in it. If that means that it has to be a little more entertaining, then it should be. An example would be our different chapels. I tend to get more out of a chapel that holds my interest because it was more entertaining for me to watch, so I remember it. Other less exciting chapels all begin to run together, and I don't really remember the messages that were given.

Chapter 9

"The television commercial is not at all about the character of products to be consumed. It is about the character of the consumers of products" (128).

This idea I agree with. Commercials tend to show the kind of people that would want the product, or show what you could be like if you buy it. Beer commercials are a good example. It shows "beautiful" people having a good time. Everyone wants to be like that. Another kind of commercial would be hair commercials. What girl doesn't want "perfect" hair? The commercials make it look like if you buy this shampoo and conditioner, you will be perfect and beautiful like this girl. It could go the other way too. If a celebrity is in it, like those "Got Milk?" adds, then people think that because so and so uses it, this would be good for me.

Chapter 10

"Teachers, from primary grades through college, are increasing the visual stimulation of their lessons; are reducing the amount of exposition their students must cope with; are relying less on reading and writing assignments; and are reluctantly concluding that the principal means by which student interest may be engaged is entertainment" (148-149).

Once again, I agree with this quote. Teachers depend more on visuals rather than just lecturing or having the students read. This assignment, for example, is to be done on a blog, a poster, or even a video, rather than writing a paper. History class right now, is working on a video project to capture a historical figure's personality. In math class, the teacher has a smart board and many teachers have variations of it. Whether or not it actually helps is up to how the teacher decides to use it.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

"For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."

These concluding lines are really what Postman has been trying to say. He says that people aren't just "laughing instead of thinking," they really have no idea why they're doing that. People have taken entertainment for granted and everything has to entertain them. Now, people don't even know what they're laughing about or why they seek entertainment. They just know that without it, life seems boring. Because of this way of thinking, Postman tries to say that people are losing their ability to think. Now they not only search for entertainment, but they also have no clue that they are slowly letting their ability to think disappear. People don't even realize it. They've stopped thinking and they don't know why. This is what Postman has been saying throughout his book. People have forgotten what thinking means and replaced thinking with forms of entertainment. Except, now this entertainment is all that people know. They no longer want to think. People only want to be entertained.

Silence Is Not So Golden...



Silence is NOT always "Golden."

     Friday was a very hard day to get through. Communicate only with actions and doodles; NO TALKING. I found myself several times wanting to say something, realizing I can't say it, and getting all frustrated trying to explain myself through terrible pictures and even worse charades skills. The whole day was hilarious trying to get people to understand me and trying to understand other people. I slipped up for such a simple thing, when someone asked me what time class got out. Eleven o' nine slips out of my mouth before I even realized what I was doing.
    Lunch was the best part. Basically our whole table was silent, except for our laughter while we tried to figure out what someone was trying to say. I was trying to ask my friends who was going to Sadie's, so I drew what I thought was a pretty good stick figure interpretation of what a dance would look like. I drew a pathetic disco ball and stick people with little lines around them, in an attempt to show that they were dancing. Then I put a big question mark over it, because I was trying to ask a question. I showed them and they gave me blank looks followed by laughter at my picture. I tried to save myself by adding musical notes around the people to get the idea that music was playing. Finally, someone next to us who could talk started guessing random things. They still were not getting the idea. I gave up with my drawings and tried to act out dancing in my seat. Everyone roared with laughter as I boogied in my seat trying to get them to understand I was DANCING! Once everyone, including myself, began to breathe again, they finally figured it out after they had some help with a lucky soul who could talk.
     Postman was very right in saying that smoke signals don't help that much. Like my drawings, unless you had a system or code worked out, it was very hard to communicate with people. I would imagine smoke signals had their flaws as well, because there are no words to help explain what the signal means. He is right in saying that words are very important. Without words, ideas and thoughts are very complicated to try and explain to people.

Technology and Society

     Postman discusses in both his book and his speech, that society is slowly changing through the years and it is changing for the worst, in his opinion. People are depending more and more on electronics and technologies than with other people. In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, he talks about how the human race continues to create new ideas. We continue to try and make things better, faster, or easier. Technologies keep growing, such as the smoke signals he mentions. People used to communicate in smoke signals. Anything that was left out of the smoke signal would have to be verbalized to the person, so smoke signals only communicated basic ideas. Throughout the years, people improved this greatly. They created the telephone, and now we have cell phones and social networks. People continue to depend on technology now. In his speech, he talks about people becoming more comfortable with talking to machines rather than talking with people, like the answering machine. Slowly society becomes more dependent on machines and other technology rather than on people. He says that eventually people may end up talking to things such as door nobs or toasters, but that would be ok.

     Also in his speech, Postman mentions cloning. He says that people are now trying to create life and call it something other than human so they always have a backup. If someone were to need an organ replacement, their clone would provide that for them. Today's society always wants what is the hottest new thing and everyone has to try and look perfect, according to society's standards. Plastic surgery has become a big thing. If you don't like a part of you, change it. In his book, he brings up President Taft, who was a large man. He wrote that in today's society, people are so concerned with looks and outward appearances that he could never be voted in to office today. People today would judge him just because of his appearance.

Civility Not Censorship

     In the first six words of her column, Linda Chavez states that she believes that it is important to remain polite when speaking out in public. She brings up "bellicose" metaphors, or metaphors that have to do with war,  because these phrases, such as "campaign," "rounds," and "took his best shot," all have to do with war and yet they are being used to describe politics.
     She's making the point that we take these words and turn them into something else. Chavez is trying to say that we should think before we speak, but our choice of words doesn't have to be boring. She says that the words themselves don't really matter; it's the meaning behind them that counts. She uses words like "Indian" and "Native American" or "ghetto" and "urban" as examples. Linda Chavez also brings up the new edition of "Huckleberry Finn," where they replaced "nigger" with slave. Her best example was explaining the words "gay" and "queer." These words used to have different definitions than what we think of them as today. "Gay" meant happy and "queer" just meant odd or peculiar. Now they refer to "sexual orientation" and homosexuals.
     I agree, because people today are so afraid of offending someone else because of a word they use. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but people blow it way out of proportion, such as the "nigger" and "slave" switch in Huckleberry Finn.