I’ve been seeing this book pop up a lot lately and finally decided to read it after a strong recommendation from Liz. Postman argues that the television is a culmination of the instantaneous speed of the telegraph with the visual nature of the photograph and has shifted our culture out of the age of typography into the age of show business- changing how we think of news, education, and social interaction.

The book first takes a historic look at how the technologies associated with writing totally changed society and brought with it new ideas like a sense of linear history and the ability to make fully cited, complex propositions that could be refuted point by point. Apparently In 1800’s America, three hour public debates were popular forms of entertainment even among the working class. Can you imagine our collective attention span handling that now?

He believed the television brought with it a new ideology where the viewer needed to be constantly entertained through tactics like attractive people, short decontextualized bursts of information aka “news of the day”, no time for introspection or ability to have serious debate, and of course the barrage of fifteen second commercials psychologically tuned to tap into our deepest longings.

The problem is that even if we don’t watch TV ourselves he demonstrates how the dominant media technology of the day still has major downstream effects on every part of our lives. I think that is why this book from forty years ago has become popular again, because his description of the ills of television have only accelerated in the age of social media.

I agree with his conclusion which is a call to be more aware of the ways a media technology shapes our actions and find ways to push back. He calls for a demystification of how media is made. I think these are great points and makes me feel validated in a pull towards small scale DIY types of distribution and a desire to regain my attention to handle more rewarding works.