Laughing instead of Thinking

 Postman makes a distinction between people laughing instead of thinking and people not knowing what they were laughing about and why they stopped thinking. Postman points out that people are no longer thinking, but the problem is that they are unaware why they are laughing instead of thinking. Therefore  people laugh more and think less, but do not even notice the difference. This distinction is important because it shows the problem of our changing society is rooted much deeper than just switching from thinking to laughing. The problem is we do not understand the reason the change is taking place.

A Day Without Talking

   I thought it was very difficult to use only pictures and acting to communicate at lunch! We had a lot to talk about after two snow days and it was hard to draw what we did those two days. Also we wanted to discuss how our day without talking was going, but it was frustrating when other people wouldn't know what I was trying to draw. Sometimes it was really funny how far off they were on guessing what I was trying to show. This relates to Postman's point that smoke signals are not a sufficient means of communication and words are much more effective when trying to explain an idea. I am now aware of how hard it would be to communicate with people using pictures everyday. This also relates to Postman's point that society is changing from a time of seeing magic in writing to a time where magic is seen in electronics. Words are very powerful and should not be lost.

The Downward Spiral

   In both the novel Amusing Ourselves to Death and Dr. Postman's interview, he discusses the changes that are taking place in society. In the book, he tells that his book examines "the decline of the Age of Typography and the ascendancy of the Age of Television". In other words, he explains how as time progresses our society will use written words such as newspapers and magazines less and less. Instead, everything will change into something that can be shown on television. In the video, Postman also predicts how people will change in upcoming years. He quotes the man who wrote Being Digital saying "In the next millennium we will find we are talking with, as much or more, machines as human beings." Postman says people will talk to door knobs and toasters as if it is completely normal to talk to non-living objects. He claims that people are already beginning to do this by talking to their answering machines. Another argument he makes to convince his audience this will happen is that people adapt to many things. For example, a soldier gets used to killing, a child adapts to living without a father, and wives learn to live with an abusive husband. In the same way, people will adapt to talking to machines. Postman gets across the same point in the book and the video, the changes taking place in society are not improvements.

   The video and book also relate in that they both talk about the importance of image. During the interview, Postman expresses his belief that in the near future a human being will be cloned. A sheep, a monkey, and possibly a  frog have already been cloned. He also discusses the idea that every human born will have a clone that they lock up and if the person every needs a kidney or other body part they will take it from their clone. In the book, he says that TV newscasters spend more time on looking good than on reading their scripts. He also mentions touching people up for television or magazines. The picture shown on the front cover of a magazine is not an accurate portrayal of their actual appearance. His point is clear in both the video and book, our concern with image is leading to a selfish and naive nation.