Amusing Ourselves to Death
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
by Neil Postman · first published 1985
57% recommend43% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A lucid argument that television and entertainment-driven media trivialize news and public discourse, framed by Huxley versus Orwell and still relevant to social media. Suits anyone interested in media criticism.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
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…Black Swan; and Fooled by Randomness Leonard Mlodinov - The Drunkard's Walk (quite similar to Fooled by Randomness) Carol Dweck - Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Neil Postman / Andrew Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death Rolf Dobelli - The Art of Thinking Clearly (just started) On my reading list now: Quiet by Susan Cain - mentioned already The Better Angels of Our Nature - Steven Pinker Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗…who we are and where we live seems beyond our reach. An Unenlightenment. An age of missing information.” -- Bill McKibben, The Age of Missing Information, 1992 McKibben's book, just like Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, is even more relevant to the internet age than the television age. There is something insidious about "information" that's doled out like slot tokens at a casino. Something dangerous about "facts" that…
on “Regaining control of your attention” ↗This is great time to mention one of my favorite books on the media and public discourse: Amusing Ourselves to Death - Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, by Neil Postman. In the book, the two infamous dystopian novels of the 20th century (1984 and Brave New World) are compared to determine which one our world…
on “Social Media: Making Us Dumber?” ↗The gist of what he's saying is pretty sound, but he should have gone deeper. For a deeper argument on the importance of "text", the written word, exposition - I recommend reading Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. People here are suggesting that images/video are superior, but there's the cliche, "a picture is worth a thousand words". Well, which thousand words? Do they convey the same thousand words to you as…
on “Always Bet on Text (2014)” ↗…acknowledge The Economist still has images) and presentation of news, especially on TV detracts from the message it's trying to convey a lot of the time. After reading some of Neil Postman's books (notably Amusing Ourselves to Death), I find it strange to watch televised news whereby one minute I'm watching footage of a disaster, then the next minute I'm seeing sports news updates or an advert. Just like normal learning, I think…
on “I Stopped Following the News” ↗'Amusing Ourselves to Death' is actually the name of a great book by Neil Postman. I'm a little bothered by the author of that infographic stealing it for his title. It's a great book and if you like thinking about this kind of…
on “Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia” ↗Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" [1] is a great torchbearer for McLuhan's POV, bringing it solidly into the era of one-way video media (cable TV, VHS, etc) that dominated 80s/90s public discourse. The internet, though, is kind of a…
on “The internet does to the world what radio did to the world” ↗…toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going." (Eccles 9:11) - Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman: We thought we had to worry about 1984 and big brother. We were wrong. We are living in Huxley's Brave New World where digital media has made us dumber, distracted and cut our connections…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗I had the enormous privilege of having a teacher who assigned both The End of Education and Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman my junior year of high school. I can't recommend them enough; reading them was one of the formative political experiences of my life. We live in dangerous times; civic engagement and…
on “Huxley vs. Orwell: Infinite Distraction Or Government Oppression” ↗A life changing book in a similar vein is "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman: http://tinyurl.com/a26wscp . I found out about it via Alan Kay's excellent reading list ( http://tinyurl.com/c6fjhj )
on “Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life” ↗Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death is a great continuation of this topic. I only wish they were still around to see how right they were.
on “1984 v. Brave New World” ↗I highly recommend Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. It’s a much more accessible and quite frankly more entertaining (amusing?) than Baudrillard’s work. It was written in the early 80’s but is so relevant it could have been published two weeks ago.
on “Simulacra and Simulation” ↗Read "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. You will realize that Social Media is designed in such a way intentionally to draw toxicity from society. No technology is neutral. Technology gives and technology takes away. Medium…
on “Ask HN: How do we stop the polarization/toxicicity filling the web?” ↗Y’all should read “Amusing ourselves to death” by Neil Postman if you’re interested in how mediums have changed over the years. As Huxley hinted, our soma is just technological narcotics. With each new medium of technology brings in a plethora of…
on “Is this the end of social networking?” ↗Everyone should read Neil Postman's Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves To Death. Postman's 6 questions about technology: 1. “What is the problem to which this technology is the solution?” 2. “Whose problem is it?” 3. “Which people and what institutions might be most seriously…
on “Doug Rushkoff Is Ready to Renounce the Digital Revolution” ↗