I would be the first to bemoan the disappearance of the independent corner bookstore (not to mention coffee shop, but don't get me started). However, I am grateful for the Borders chain for placing one particular book within my line of sight one day, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman.
This book has changed my life in many ways, not the least of which was giving me the final push to yank the plug on my cable box. I have not had anything except a DVD player hooked up to my TV for four years. I would encourage and challenge anyone to turn off their TV for a week and see for themselves what that can mean for their lives, even if they currently only watch in "moderation."
A major premise of Neil Postman's book is that TV has replaced literature as the dominant medium in America, which by its nature is a medium that demands its content to be entertaining first and foremost. The result is that Americans train their brains from infancy on TV viewing and therefore entertainment, so that entertainment has become the dominant form for all discourse. This, in turn, has affected our culture to such a degree that serious discourse is no longer possible for most Americans.
Another premise of the book is that all "news" is really entertainment at heart, and therefore no "news", no matter the medium, can be taken seriously as discourse. Postman pegs the birth of "news" to the invention of the telegraph, when something had to be created to fill the void of what amounted to dead air time to justify the expense of all that infrastructure. I would be equally curious as to when "press" and "newspaper" became synonymous, since it is entirely possible to have mainstream press devoted to single issues using lengthy discourse on exclusively relevant topics. Instead, today's press means "newspapers" which are a hodgepodge of chopped-up articles, unrelated by topic or audience or geographic locale, competing for attention amongst themselves as well as the ubiquitous advertisements choking them. The "top of the fold" resembles the cluttered and very busy TV screen during the "news." And that's the literate form of the medium!
Let's drive home Postman's two premises by examining a so-called serious program on a so-called serious network on a so-called serious medium on the most serious subject of them all. Let's examine the program "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio that aired last Wednesday with the primary subject being the war in Iraq:
Talk of the Nation Wednesday's show · July 11, 2007
Politics: Republicans Break Rank with Bush on Iraq
Ken Rudin, NPR's political editor, discusses the debate over Iraq and the Republicans who have distanced themselves from President Bush over the war. Also, Democrats in Congress are fighting back as the president tries to block testimony about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
Diversions: Study Debunks the Five-Second "Rule"
A recent study by Clemson University questions the scientific validity of the "Five-Second Rule." The frequently cited rule claims that as long as dropped food is picked up off the floor within five seconds, it is OK to eat. Guests and callers discuss the many caveats to this less-than-foolproof approach to food safety.
If you happened to listen to the program, you would know instantly that the program was primarily entertainment by the (pompous) musical introduction. However, even if you didn't listen to the program there are a couple of dead giveaways. The first is that it bills itself as a "show" and rightly so. The second is that the serious subject of war has a built-in "diversion" which is by design, and a necessary element to any form of serious and potentially boring entertainment (think comic relief in Shakespeare's plays).
The agenda for the program places "politics" and "diversions" side-by-side, quite blatantly and purposefully. And many times during the program the listeners were reminded that the diversion on the scientific study debunking the 5-second rule is coming up after the segment on the "serious" war debate. The show cannot afford to have its listeners become bored on the boring war segment and needs to remind them that they will be rewarded with a light-hearted look at when it's safe to eat an Oreo cookie that has fallen on the floor. I couldn't help but wonder what a soldier who's very life is dependent on public discourse and the politics of war would think of the juxtaposition of these two subjects in a one hour program.
And let's end appropriately, the way Neil Postman would have reminded us, by coaxing the fretting, thoughtful reader to ignore the impulse to act on one's thoughts with a cue to forget everything I've tried to convey -- "And now, this..."
3 comments:
the title track to roger waters' "amused to death" concludes that our epitaph will be "this species amused itself to death." it fades with a world war one vet accepting the reality that he left a friend behind to die in no man's land. he achieves his epiphany at a war memorial which he visted in 1984.
see ya, gotta get dinner on the table.....
Here's a relevant article. I added the link at the bottom:
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Nev. couple blame Internet for neglect Mon Jul 16, 8:09 AM ET
RENO, Nev. - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.
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The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.
Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.
"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.
Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.
The Straws have been given public defenders. Jeremy Bosler, head of the county public defender's office, declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.
Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.
While child abuse because of drug addiction is common, abuse rooted in video game addiction is rare, Viloria said.
Last month, experts at an American Medical Association meeting backed away from a proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder, saying it had to be studied further. Some said the issue is like alcoholism, while others said there was no concrete evidence it's a psychological disease.
Patrick Killen, spokesman for Nevada Child Abuse Prevention, said video game addiction's correlation to child abuse is "a new spin on an old problem."
"As we become more technologically advanced, there's more distractions," Killen said. "It's easy for someone to get addicted to something and neglect their children. Whether it's video games or meth, it's a serious issue, and (we) need to become more aware of it."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070716/ap_on_re_us/neglect_internet_addiction
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Two years of living in Paris cured me of cable/satellite/network tv. First it was just annoying because it was all in French, but once we realized that we could download everything we wanted (like the Daily Show, yes, news as entertainment) it became really hard to justify paying $60/month for HD quality broadcasts of worthless content.
Between the Internet and Netflix, I get more "entertainment" than I need.
As far as books are concerned, I read one every two weeks. I'll try not to climb onto my high horse of DRM. I'll just say that rather than cutting down trees and bleaching pulp and spending fuel to distribute books, can't we encourage those of us who prefer to read them electronically by making more books available in that format?
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