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Anyone actually read that book? Would you recommend it?

by swombat 13y ago

lmm 13y ago
As an interesting piece of fiction? Yes. As moral philosophy? No.
- andyjohnson0 13y ago
  I'm fairly sure that @swombat is referring to Postman's book, not Huxley's.
dingfeng_quek 13y ago
I read the book (Amusing Ourselves to Death), and I would recommend it for these reasons: - It explores a contemporary topic of significance. Relevance will depend on your interests. I do think it's an essential perspective for analysing the impact of media on society, and since the impact has been huge and is still increasing, it's relevant to all kinds of public and policy decisions. - I haven't read any other works that discusses the topic in a similar perspective and in comparable or greater detail. I've come across few works on this topic. * Postman's later books and essays aren't anywhere close to this either. - It is dated, and talks about last century's media - however, it is even more applicable to this century's computers, games, and internet, which are much more "addictive".
da02 13y ago
Alan Kay recommended it. He kept bringing it up. I finally read it last week. It's awesome. I think you can apply what people did with the TV to how people use social media: a series of interruptions. Someone posted the pdf of the 20th anniv. edition. Google: Amusing Ourselves to Death pdf
- dingfeng_quek 13y ago
  It could be depressing as well, since the described effects correspond to the erosion of many important public institutions (like democratic governance). Seems like this decade is a good time for an update on this issue, now that entertainment technologies are ubiquitous and totally attention grabbing, and cognitive psychology gives it good scientific grounding.
BjoernKW 13y ago
I only read a summary / excerpt / essay (don't which it was exactly and if it was from the book or another text by Postman on the same subject) quite some time ago. His premise basically is that humans are increasingly becoming incapable of doing meaningful stuff or having meaningful conversations while gladly frittering away time for meaningless bullshit provided by the media. While the dominant theme in his book naturally is TV the connection to today's social media usage and news consumption is quite obvious. However, while the subject is important I'm not sure you need to read the entire book for the message to sink in.
gizzlon 13y ago
Yes, IIRC parts where a little dull but it gave me a fresh point of view.. Remember thinking that TV did not end up causing all the problems he thought... and then thinking that maybe it did, we just can't tell anymore
mattgreenrocks 13y ago
First read was for college. It's a bit slow in places, wrong in a few, but especially prescient with social media.

Anyone actually read that book? Would you recommend it?

by swombat 13y ago

Anyone actually read that book? Would you recommend it?

lmm 13y ago

As an interesting piece of fiction? Yes. As moral philosophy? No.

andyjohnson0 13y ago
I'm fairly sure that @swombat is referring to Postman's book, not Huxley's.

dingfeng_quek 13y ago

I read the book (Amusing Ourselves to Death), and I would recommend it for these reasons: - It explores a contemporary topic of significance. Relevance will depend on your interests. I do think it's an essential perspective for analysing the impact of media on society, and since the impact has been huge and is still increasing, it's relevant to all kinds of public and policy decisions. - I haven't read any other works that discusses the topic in a similar perspective and in comparable or greater detail. I've come across few works on this topic. * Postman's later books and essays aren't anywhere close to this either. - It is dated, and talks about last century's media - however, it is even more applicable to this century's computers, games, and internet, which are much more "addictive".

da02 13y ago

Alan Kay recommended it. He kept bringing it up. I finally read it last week. It's awesome. I think you can apply what people did with the TV to how people use social media: a series of interruptions. Someone posted the pdf of the 20th anniv. edition. Google: Amusing Ourselves to Death pdf

dingfeng_quek 13y ago
It could be depressing as well, since the described effects correspond to the erosion of many important public institutions (like democratic governance). Seems like this decade is a good time for an update on this issue, now that entertainment technologies are ubiquitous and totally attention grabbing, and cognitive psychology gives it good scientific grounding.

BjoernKW 13y ago

I only read a summary / excerpt / essay (don't which it was exactly and if it was from the book or another text by Postman on the same subject) quite some time ago. His premise basically is that humans are increasingly becoming incapable of doing meaningful stuff or having meaningful conversations while gladly frittering away time for meaningless bullshit provided by the media. While the dominant theme in his book naturally is TV the connection to today's social media usage and news consumption is quite obvious. However, while the subject is important I'm not sure you need to read the entire book for the message to sink in.

gizzlon 13y ago

Yes, IIRC parts where a little dull but it gave me a fresh point of view.. Remember thinking that TV did not end up causing all the problems he thought... and then thinking that maybe it did, we just can't tell anymore

mattgreenrocks 13y ago

First read was for college. It's a bit slow in places, wrong in a few, but especially prescient with social media.