Postmans Closing Words

Postman made the distinction in his last sentence that the problem of our society today is not that we are too dependent on entertainment but that we are unaware of our dependence on entertainment. In the last paragraph, Postman uses the example of what Aldous Huxley said in Brave New World to help the reader better understand the reason that he wrote this book. He is trying to get the reader to understand that he wrote this book so that we can learn of our dependence on entertainment so that we are no longer ignorant of what we believe is important today. Postman uses this last paragraph of the book to inform the readers that we need to be aware of the issue that has formed in our society and we must try to not allow our entire lives to revolve around entertainment. The last sentence of this book is to help the reader understand that the issues are not formed because of our entertainment filled world, but because of our ignorance of the people of our society changing from thinkers to people focusing soley on entertainment.

Friday's Opportunity

On Friday, I found that the opportunity we were given to experience a day without talking was extremely difficult but not impossible. I had difficulties trying to have a conversation with my friends or with a teacher in class. One of the most difficult times was at lunch and no one at the table could talk. We were all drawing on white boards and no one could understand. It was also extremely difficult when someone who was not a part of the experiment was trying to figure out what I was doing. It was easy to explain that I was unable to talk because of an assignment, but it was very difficult to explain why we had the assignment. They understood that I could not talk but they were not understanding why. I learned that when you have to communicate in a different way than others around you it can be very hard but it is possible. It is hard to get the other person to understand completely what you are trying to say. The way that we communicate with each other affects if the message is understood or not.

Technology And Society

       In this interview with Neil Postman at Calvin College, he discusses that the human dilemma is that the "technological changes of this era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages". Hes saying that with all the advancements in technology that our society is making today, the knowledge acquired by past generations is becoming irrelevant. This statement relates to what Postman says in Amusing Ourselves to Death that "this change- over had dramatically irreversibly shifted the content and meaning of public discourse". In these two statements Postman is trying to convey that the changes that society today has gone through are completely changing what has been learned from past generations in how we act and speak to one another.
     Later in the interview Postman talks about how today people are okay with talking to telephone answering machines. He states that people adapt to what is going on around them and we "adapt ourselves to talking to machines rather than people, and we may end up preferring it". This statement relates to what Postman says in Amusing Ourselves to Death that 'he uses the word 'converstion' metaphorically to refer not only to speech but to all techniques and technologies" that are used to communicate today. These two statements relate in that Postman is trying to get the reader/hearer to understand that we are relying too much on technology today that we are losing communications through speech.