Analysis Of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death

In Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman, Postman offers many points along with sufficient evidence as to how today’s media and technology control our mind and our affairs. He also brings up two clashing points of view towards this by the end of the novel: Orwell’s and Huxley’s. Between these two, I agree with Postman’s assertion that Huxley’s vision best applies to American culture today. Even though this book was published in the mid-80’s, television is still as prominent today as it was back then. Now we have hundreds and hundreds of channels at our fingertips, showing any kind of entertainment we could possibly wish for. With all of this entertainment, it tends to blind people from what really matters in this world, or in other words, it buries the truth in irrelevance. Some people even refer to
Children would rather opt to learning from technology rather than just a book. Some educators are trying to combat this with laminated posters in classrooms preaching that it is important to read; yet with technology being so attainable, it is less likely that a child would voluntarily reach for print over electronic images. Television shows directed towards children have bright and vibrant color schemes and sweet little melodies that keep the children interested. No interesting colors or audio or incorporated with a book and sadly, this makes a great amount of children mature with having little to no interest in reading a book. Another reason why Huxley’s vision is more valid than Orwell’s is the fact that whether books are banned or not, television entices us to watch more no matter what. In other words, television “impairs the student’s freedom to read” by distracting them with the multitude of junk that mainstream television offers, while also blinding them from the abundance of information that is available via books and certain online resources (pg.