What Are We Doing To Ourselves

A book I really liked was Amusing Ourselves To Death, by Neil Postman. In it he claims (roughly) that each era has a defining medium, which define what people value and also how everything is done.

So (per Postman), television is a medium for "visuals and motion", and therefore it doesn't do well with sustained argument, and is basically built for entertainment. So the TV age turned everything into entertainment, without us totally noticing.

One of the memorable parts of his book is when he walks you throw a standard TV newscast, with its attractive anchors and short segments and "...now this" hyperactivity. "We're no longer struck dumb, as any sane person would be," he writes "when a newscaster, having just declared that nuclear war is inevitable, goes on to say he will be right back after this word from Burger King."

As the title of the book says, we're amusing ourselves to death: at the time of his writing, we were collectively molded by a medium that structurally treated everything, silly or serious, as entertainment.

Postman died in 2003, which means (though it's hard for me to believe this) he never knew about Facebook, which didn't launch till 2004. (Its predecessor, Facemash, launched 23 days after Postman died). Similarly, somewhere in Cupertino, plans for the iPhone would start in 2004, and wouldn't launch until June 2007, 3.5 years post-Postman.

My point is this: to my sadness, Postman didn't live to describe the era that came after Television. And sometimes I ask myself: what would he have said? For all its flaws, I actually don't think the nouveau régime is the same as the old on. What is its defining trait, and what shape does it push on the rest of the content that flows through it.

In other words: what, exactly, are we doing to ourselves?

Thoughts in the comments, if you will – I will add my own there shortly.