A book in a page - "Amusing Ourselves to Death"

Amusing Ourselves to Death was first published in 1940. Written by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death is a critique of our technology driven and operated world in the form of a vision for what it will inevitably lead to. Postman disagrees with the way news is presented in our generation, in that it is offered and treated as entertainment. Even in 1940 this was a problem. In the newest edition of the book, which was heavily revised in 1985, Postman states some clear signs of this degration to entertainment. Several of these include the introduction of commercials every few minutes, and the use of emotion inducing things such as theme music and graphics. One of Postman's main themes in Amusing Ourselves to Death is the lack of proper political campaigns about vision, values, and views on the pressing political issues, but rather on how good looking they are and how they appear in front of a large audience when delivering a speech or participating in a debate. Like so much else, politics has also shifted to being all about visual stimulus. Postman argues the if the public does not stop and take time to examine and understand the daunting effects of a technologically advanced (and more importantly, TV addicted) society, we will begin to (more than we are already) embrace such technologies without second thought. This is extremely dangerous, because if it is allowed to go on, it will eventually completely sabotage our ability to think and reason for ourselves. So how can this be avoided? Postman wisely notes that such a popular "information" (ie. Entertainment) medium such as television, due to its wide interest and popularity, is extremely difficult to control. Rather than going to the extreme of not watching Television at all, Postman encourages us to understand the dangers involved; He suggests that we stop laughing and start asking ourselves why we have stopped thinking for ourselves. Neil Postman deals with the subject of technology, warning his readers of the dangers, and pleading with them to have an increased awareness of what has happened in the past quarter century. Amusing Ourselves to Death is both captivating and powerful; Anyone who has read it will never sit down in front of the television and take it lightly again!