Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman (1986, Paperback)

I got this book a couple weeks ago for a class. I was told this book was boring and dry so i wasn't too happy about it. When i read it..i realized that it was sooo interesting!! It was a bit hard to swallow sometimes because Postman is so harsh about some ideas and i didn't agree..but that's good to be able to read someone else's point of view and compare them with your own. So yea if your interested political culture and how it's "killing you" you gotta read....and if you have to get this for a class...don't be sad..it's pretty intresting...you can argure with it the whole time! :)

fast shipping would work with again definitely.....i needed this book for school it said 10 to 17 day shipping i got it in 3

Very well written and well argued, Postman's thesis is that our culture has shifted from being one of printed media to one of television and this shift changes not only the media through which we are informed, it actually changes the very content of what we are learning.

Sustained reasoning requires the written word. To comprehend deep or subtle ideas, we have to be able to read a bit, stop and think about it, re-read it. But most of our information these days are sound bites - brief bursts of TV friendly, consumer oriented media flashes. It is not possible to sustain deep thought in this media. As a result, for instance, candidates get elected on face quotient, smooth public speaking and good looks. Fat or ugly politicians, no matter how good their ideas or how valuable their leadership, simply will not get elected.

Our culture is no longer one of thought but one of impressions, impressions we gather from 30 second bits of TV. Our news programs must now be entertaining, not informative. I think about the decline of CNN until "Robyn in the Morning" has devolved into shallow pap. How often does even the "serious" news reportage endlessly cover such inane events like Michael Jackson's lurid life and death? Sometimes I can get more information about events in the USA by watching the BBC World Report!

I have not finished this book but already I can see it's going to be one I recommend to others and re-read many times - unless, of course, they make a movie out of it.

I bought this book because i need it for my english class.
what i like most about it is that it arrived fast and it was in very good conditions.

The book is somewhat tough to comprehend but that is the main focus of the book. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman explains how history of the printing press, photograph and television can alter our perception about things. It's tough to review but I would recommend reading it. I was enlightened once I finished it.