Chapter 1: "The Medium Is the Metaphor"
Postman makes a very bold claim when he states, "that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death" (4). Like much of this chapter, this point seems to be exaggerated but it does make a good point: our lives have simply become long series of entertainment. By continuing to live lives where "we must look to the city of Las Vegas [...] as a metaphor of our national character and aspiration" (3), we invite a lifelong experience of mindless entertainment where our culture seems to almost come to standstill, unlike our past culture of moving forward.
A recent event in our classroom that seems to support Postman's claim is when we evaluated different brochures from different Colleges. In most cases, students would be far more inclined to look over a Harvard brochure filled with bright colors and pretty pictures than the brochure of Berkeley, filled with black and white text and a few smaller pictures. To be quite honest, the brochure of Berkeley actually seemed to hold much more valuable and important information, but I too fall into the problems of society for if I were sitting in a waiting room and could pick one brochure to look at, I would evaluate the one of Harvard in a heartbeat.
One final point that I had to make was as I was reading this first chapter, I couldn't stop myself from remembering the text I had to read over summer, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Both these texts were remarkably similar for they both demonstrate the effects of a society shifting from a medium of technology over text. In fact, there were specific chapters in Carr's book where he mentioned how he, and the majority of others, would rather view something with striking pictures than plain text. This book, written in 2011, shows how our society hasn't really moved forward 26 years after Postman writes about the same ideas. That simple argument proves Postman's thesis.
Who would you rather have as your president?
Great insight Philipp. I also agree with you and Mr. Postman that our world today is emphasizing media and technology as opposed to a world of text and writing. Although I feel that both worlds have their advantages, there should be a medium in between, where images are accompanied by text. This way, people will not forget the importance of writing and how powerful it can be. You bring up an interesting point that the modern world today is constantly seeking entertainment. I feel that this is true because the modern society today is more sporadic than the old society. This means that people are constantly seeking ways to positively change their lives, even if they are not having any problems at all. I also agree with you that people are more attracted to images than text. I think that the reason for this is that images can portray to a person many deep details about something in less time than text can. Does this mean that the modern society feels it has less time to do things? I feel this is true because it is a more sporadic society. Also, take into account Mr. Postman’s excellent use of stipulative definitions throughout the chapter. Without interpreting these definitions correctly, one could easily get confused. Great job all around.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Postman in regards to his idea that our society is shifting from writing to electronics. I also agree with you that the Internet would strengthen Postman's point. In your second paragraph, you mention Las Vegas; do you believe, as Postman does, that this city is a "metaphor of our national character and aspiration"? Also, images are more appealing than text and you show a good example of this by stating that us, as readers of this blog, will probably see the pictures below before reading the blog. The images you chose make a great point in showing how significant visual appeal is nowadays, and makes us realize that solely by looking at two images we can already have a choice of who we will vote for, despite their ideals. The answer to the caption is an obvious choice, but at the same time, I would not want to have a president who has a tattoo of Kim Jong Un on his arm. I see your point though, and it is a good example. In your last paragraph you mention the similarities between the chapter we read and the book The Shallows. Although I did not read the book, from what you said in your last paragraph the two pieces of literature seem to have clear similarities. Furthermore, I feel that your final point was an excellent one, and you make a great observation in stating that a book written in 2011 closely resembles the chapter we read from 1984, showing the lack of progress in our society.
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