I’ve heard Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” recommended many times, and in fact I believe it made Ben Sasse’s list of must-read books, so I recently read it – or, rather, listened to it; I got the audiobook from the library. The book is subtitled “Public discourse in the age of show business” and traces how, as our communication media have changed, that’s produced corresponding changes in our culture and even how we think. The book is compelling and thought-provoking, and even more so given that it was first published in 1985. At the time, Postman was horrified by how television was changing public discourse but the internet was still well in the distance. It’s tough to read this book without trying to imagine what he would say about how YouTube and social media have further reshaped our culture in the internet age.

Part of Postman’s core thesis is that how we communicate plays a key role in what we communicate and, as a result, how we think. Concisely, the written word lends itself particularly well to involved, carefully reasoned argument and discussion, presentation of facts, and analysis. Reading, then, can teach us to think carefully and analyze, among other things. Postman goes over the relatively astonishing literacy rates in Colonial America and traces these down through history, noting how this influenced the culture of the time. Many people read voraciously, and engaged with the big ideas of the time both in written form and in discussion. Their reading habits influenced their thinking and interests, and carried over even into politics. Postman notes, for example, that the famous Lincoln-Douglas senate debates (for an election) were extremely long, yet drew large and engaged audiences who carefully followed their long speeches. These speeches took the form not of passionate rhetoric or short sound bites, but long, well-reasoned discourses which might well have been in written form. Postman notes:

[Lincoln and Douglas] had tangled several times before, and all of their encounters had been much lengthier and more exhausting. For example, on October 16, 1854, in Peoria, Illinois, Douglas delivered a three-hour address to which Lincoln, by agreement, was to respond. When Lincoln’s turn came, he reminded the audience that it was already 5 p.m., the he would probably require as much time as Douglas and that Douglas was still scheduled for a rebuttal. He proposed, therefore, that the audience go home, have dinner, and return refreshed for four more hours of talk. The audience amiably agreed, and matters proceeded as Lincoln had outlined.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates, then, after this, consisted of a series of debates where, on each occasion, the first candidate would speak for 60 minutes, the next candidate would rebut for 90 minutes, and then the first candidate would speak another 30 minutes, for a total of three hours. Then they would cease and resume the debate again in another town on their campaign tour. These debates drew substantial audiences, and newspapers ran full transcripts.

Compare and contrast those debates with today’s presidential debates, which eschew substance almost entirely (even more so than during Postman’s time) and you can get a flavor of what Postman is getting at, here; we just don’t value this kind of discourse today. Post traces how that happened, partly as the result in changes in our media. As books gave way to newspapers, telegraphs, telephone, radio, and eventually television, this marked not just a change in what kind of content we consume, but how we think, what we think about, and what we’re interested in and what we pursue.

The name of the book, “Amusing ourselves to death”, comes from how television (or, in our time, video entertainment more generally) has affected us. Postman argues compellingly that not only is video designed to entertain, but only a specific kind of content lends itself well to that, so media producers eschew careful and deliberate argument and focus on the entertaining, the compelling, the exciting, etc. And as we consume such media, it teaches us to want more of the same, in essentially a kind of vicious cycle.

It’s worth reading the whole book, as Postman is far more compelling than I am. But if you don’t believe me, just imagine trying to sit through a three-hour (or longer!) presidential debate where each candidate might speak for an hour at a time. Consider how hard it would be to remain still, much less focused and carefully following the arguments being presented. I doubt I could do it, even if I didn’t doze off – and I think I have a pretty decent attention span. It’s also easy to see how media could play a role in reshaping our approach. An earlier generation got used to changing the TV channel if something wasn’t interesting after a few minutes, and in the internet age, we close our browser tab or scroll to the next slot in our social media feed if the first few seconds of something doesn’t grab us. We flit rapidly from one idea to the next, without really engaging or thinking deeply.

This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it, though I must note that I also found it sobering and somewhat scary. From Postman’s vantage point in 1985, it was already clear that our culture had undergone a profound transition away from the world I like to imagine myself living in – one where careful, well-reasoned argument in written form can do a great deal to convince people and change minds, and one where the truth will win out in the long run, even if it’s not presented with the best sound bites. Today, though, we seem to have gone far, far further in the direction Postman was already concerned about – and I don’t see how we as a society can recover, because we seem content to head blindly wherever the technology takes us.

Overall, I think everyone ought to read this book and take a careful look at the role of technology in our lives. And I hope it will prompt us also to carve out time to read and think, not just to be entertained – and to teach our kids to do the same. In a subsequent post, I’ll highlight a couple of my take-aways from the book. But, give it a read and let me know what you think.