Amusing Ourselves to Death
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
by Neil Postman
A recent Nielsen study found that the average American watches four and a half hours of television a day. That amounts to twelve continuous hours by age 65. It cannot be denied that, in the twenty-first century, entertainment is a very significant part of our lives.
In his book, Postman does not argue, even though the title might suggest, that entertainment is harmful. Entertainment can very well be a good thing. The issue comes when we turn serious modes of public discourse, like news, politics, education, and religion, into entertainment. By carefully curating all of these subjects into thirty-minute segments (sometimes even 30 seconds) as modern broadcasting has done, we have changed their purpose. They are no longer intended to inform but to excite. One study conducted found that 51 percent of viewers could not recall a single item of news a few minutes after viewing a news program on television. Another study found that 21 percent of television viewers could not recall any news items within one hour of broadcast. Something seems wrong here.
As Dr. Mark Mitchell noted, it becomes a problem when serious things are treated frivolously and frivolous things, seriously. Entertainment ought to be enjoyed as a means to an end, not as an end in itself. This book will help you understand the difference.
