Blame TV?

A detailed Summary of Blame TV?

American society has become exceedingly trivial, no doubt about that. It may also be true that certain forms of communication contributed to this current state of affairs. However, surely it is overly simplistic to claim, as Neil Postman does in his book, "Amusing Ourselves to Death," that these forms of communication, namely television and its predecessors, the telegraph and photograph, single-handedly brought about this decline in the quality of public discourse?

This essay, then, is an attempt to lift some of the blame off of TV's shoulders. It will demonstrate that the trivialization of society occurred not because of TV but, rather, concurrently with its development - through sheer coincidence. Furthermore, it will argue that, perhaps, society has always been somewhat trivial and entertainment-obsessed, that Postman is merely glamorizing or misinterpreting certain aspects of 19th century print society.

Postman himself, in the early pages of his book, admits that his story is probably not anywhere near the whole truth. Unfortunately, he fails to keep this admission in mind when later developing his argument. If he had, he would have been forced to take into consideration, or at least acknowledged, factors beyond the dev

It is possible that, without TV, this shift in priorities would not have been as pronounced, that the availability of constant entertainment led people to desire it more than they would have otherwise. This leads to the second issue dealt with in this essay: that it is human nature to seek to be entertained. That, in fact, humans have always sought this to the extent that they were able. Postman himself goes into great detail on 19th century print society, claiming it was a time when people were more interested in ideas, as opposed to entertainment, a time when public discourse had substance, was thoughtful and important. Moreover, that this was the direct result of the widespread popularity of print. Can it really be said that 19th century society's preoccupation with reading led them to be more rational and considering? One must remember that this was a society without electricity, composed mostly of rural dwellings far from sources of entertainment. What could people have done for entertainment but read? Furthermore, was what they read incomparable in content to what we, today, watch on TV? If one takes into consideration the fact that, based on prevailing attitudes, people's concept of what constitutes entertainment may change, this is most likely. After all, the bible - the best-selling book of 19th century America, according to Postman - is essentially a collection of simply told fantastic stories. As for the other literature Postman cites, whether it was read for entertainment or for more edifying reasons is hard to say, but the fact is that there were plenty of other best-selling books - those by Dickens, Bronte, or Austen, for example - that he mentions only in passing. These were some of the most widely read books of the time and, while today they're viewed as classics by virtue of their age, at the time of their publication they were, in essence, no better than today's soap operas or romance novels in terms of subject matter.

One has only to look at American society at the time of TV's development to see how this is so. It was really only in the 20th century that the masses found themselves with excess money and time. With this extra time and money they were able to begin exploring avenues which had previously been unavailable to them - such as the pursuit of entertainment. They invented the vacation, they spent their money on frivolous possessions, they sought, after years of hard work with no hope of happiness in this life, to have fun. Naturally TV, introduced into a soc

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Approximate Word count = 1689
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous