Boil the Frog Slowly

At the end of chapter eleven, Postman makes the distinction between being aware and being unaware of our changing culture. He wants to verify that the problem isn’t that we are being entertained. The true problem is that we are always being entertained and don’t even notice it. We are unaware of the effects that this entertainment overload is having on our thinking capabilities. This unawareness is the danger that our society is facing. If no one sees the problem, then there is nothing to fix. Postman's purpose of his book is to bring this problem to our attention so that we may realize that there is a problem and fix it before we "amuse ourselves to death".

Shhh

Mr. Brandt presented our class with a challenge. The challenge was to go an entire school day without talking. We were armed with a dry-erase board for illustrations and our amateur acting skills. The result was a very amusing but frustrating day. At the beginning of the day, simple events such as walking with a friend to class became awkward. It was too difficult to draw or act in addition to walking and carrying next hour’s books. At lunch, instead of the typical chatter going on, several picture conversations were started. We were trying to discuss our plans for the weekend. However, our conversations did not last long since it was very hard to interpret each other’s pictures. Most of us just ended up laughing at our drawings even though we never really understood the meaning behind them. If we could not communicate clearly our plans for the weekend, then it is obvious that we would be unable to carry on any sort of deep discussion. This goes along with what Postman says about not being able to teach philosophy with smoke signals. Our medium of charades and pictures limited us way too much. As a result, most of our “conversations” were meaningless but entertaining. We settled for simple amusement instead of trying to convey any form of real discussion.

Postman's Point

Neil Postman’s warning about the world’s collapsing culture do to the overuse of technology remains consistent in both his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and his speech at Calvin College. Postman draws his audiences’ attention to the shift from “the Age of Typography” to the “Age of Television.” In his book Postman writes, “our own tribe is undergoing a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics.” He discusses this idea of a changing culture from the ancient time of smoke signals, to discovering the written word, and now to the era of television. He believes that not all changes are advancements. He mentions how the new way of “conversing” has in fact regressed from the magic of the written word. Postman expresses this idea of negative changes in his speech when he quotes Henry David Thoreau who stated that, “all our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end.” He continues to prove that same point that just because people make changes doesn’t mean they are going to provide a better end result.

            Postman also points out that the worth and capacity of humans is declining because of the hindering effects of electronics. In his novel, he compares today’s society with Las Vegas, a city known for its wild and over-the-top entertainment. Similar to his idea of human’s becoming slaves to entertainment; Postman speaks about how people start becoming their computer’s pets. He wants to show how people are no longer in control of themselves. Las Vegas is known for its excess which is part of his point that people now have become excessive with their use of technology. He talks of this excess in his speech when he brings up the idea of people talking more to machines than actual human beings. Postman is very clear in both his novel and speech that our society is changing but not necessarily advancing. He also sends an obvious warning about excessive technology use.