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Book Report: Amusing ourself to death

             During the reading of "Amusing Ourselves to Death," I found my self agreeing and disagreeing at the same time about many of the points Postman makes. The main point of the book the author is trying to convey is the effect of the development of television in our generation and how bad it is for us. "I hope to persuade you that the decline of a print-based epistemology and the accompanying rise of a television-based epistemology has had grave consequences for public life, that we are getting sillier by the minute" (Postman 24). He conveys some points well but I have to admit that some points he lacks persuasion and even seem very one sided with not enough research.
             In the first part of the book the author talks of the print-based culture and fast growth of the telegraph and the photograph culture that eventually leads to the television era. He describes the early means of getting information, print-based epistemology, and the intellectual level of the people in the past because of the print-based medium people used and how inferior television is to print. .
             The author gives great amount of credibility to the written word rather then the spoken word to prove his point. It does make sense in the way Postman describes it, the fact that the print goes through several editors before it is published thus having more credential (Postman 21) and how print endures while spoken word disappears. Maybe back in the days that may have been true, but in my recent experience in TV tells me something different. The dialog in the television show also goes through several editors and authorities. The facts and information along with grammar and structure are all checked several times by different people to make sure that they are accurate and proper. I don't think Postman is giving enough credits to the television, especially new media, for the trouble they go through.
             He almost makes it seems as though people in American culture are getting dumber and dumber because of the growth and the use of television media in our country and individually.


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