{"id":39423,"date":"2021-06-19T03:51:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T07:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=39423"},"modified":"2021-06-25T08:31:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T12:31:01","slug":"amusing-ourselves-to-death-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/amusing-ourselves-to-death-introduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Amusing Ourselves to Death: Introduction and Foreword"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is in the Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/em> introduction? How does the 2005 introduction put the book into perspective?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/em> was written in 1985 by Neil Postman. In the 2005 version of the book, Postman’s son included an introduction that makes the book more relevant now than it was thirty-six years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is an overview of the 2005 Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/em> introduction and foreword to the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/em>: 2005 Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-six years ago, in Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/em>, Neil Postman warned that television was reshaping our culture and trivializing public life\u2014our news, politics, religion, education, and business\u2014by turning everything into entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His concern was television\u2019s ability to so inundate us with irrelevant information that we\u2019d lose sight of what was important and meaningful\u2014even worse, we wouldn\u2019t care as long as we felt entertained.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postman\u2019s central message resonates today because television has been joined by a host of even more distracting media. Devices like smartphones and tablets, plus numerous methods of communication, including email, texting, the internet, cable, gaming, and streaming, continue to enlarge the culture of entertainment he saw taking shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Amusing Ourselves to Death <\/em>introduction to the 2005 edition of the book, Neil Postman\u2019s son Andrew argues that reading the book today is like turning on a light switch\u2014we\u2019re shocked at the brightness or clarity, having not realized it had gotten so dark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1985 and 2005, our average time spent watching TV remained steady at about four and a half hours a day. (Shortform note: On top of that, we\u2019ve since added at least three more hours a day of entertainment-based screen time viewing other kinds of screens.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postman warns that while transformative media technology dazzles and \u201camuses\u201d us, it also powerfully influences us by dictating what we know and think and how we respond<\/strong>. We need to pay attention to and question what it\u2019s doing to us\u2014for instance, by asking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n