No Laughing Matter

Neil Postman ends his book with a thought-provoking point. He bases this point off of Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World. The problem is not that we laugh at things rather than thinking about them. Not knowing why we laugh or why we stop thinking is the real problem. Many of the things on television and radio fill our minds with useless information yet entertain us for hours. Why? Because they do not provoke thought and there is no effort to care that no thinking is necessary. In today's standard, you don't have to understand something to be entertained. Simply laughing at "entertaining" shows and programs is the norm. Laughter without reason is what Huxley is warning the people of today about. Thinking is also a lost art because of the entertainment put out today. Rarely does a show on television cause us to truly think or philosiphy. This deadly combination, according to Postman, is what will determine how our society will grow or decline.

Silent Friday

Not being able to talk during the school day was frustrating. I could not convey what I was thinking to others through my drawings. The silence was irritating around friends. Many conversations I would have liked to join were passed up. Overall, speech is taken for granted by people everyday because of the use of computers and cell phones.

Dr. Postman's Parallels

Dr. Postman stated in the video that "humans will become pets of their computers." This statement eerily parallels today's society that glorifies social networking and an almost religious use of computers. Also, Postman describes in Amusing Ourselves to Death  how the invention of the clock controls what people do with their lives. The concept of time is created, wasted, or spent. Life is put into a perspective of time. Time dictates how and what is done by people. He also mentions how the alphabet breaks down speech and creates for itself new jobs and problems. Overall, Postman feels that the inventions of man eventually end up becoming the masters of their creators.