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
In a society where only a few knew wealth and leisure while the bulk of the population was forced to slave and knew only work and hardship, would TV have had the same composition as it did when introduced into a, for the most part, wealthy, capitalist society? To say yes would be folly. Postman himself describes the crowd at these events as being rowdy and festive - almost as though they were attending a modern-day baseball game. As for public debates, which Postman holds up as the supreme example of 19th century society's appreciation for quality public discourse, whether these were indeed attended in the interests of furthering one's is, again, debatable. The content of TV in the Middle Ages would have been utterly alien to today's America. Postman's insistence on comparing serious literature to frivolous TV, essentially comparing apples and oranges, seriously weakens his argument. People must pick and choose what interests them, the end result being that much of the knowledge they posses is shallow. Not to say that this is true, but it is very hard to prove one way or the other, thus Postman's argument is clearly unfalsifiable. After all, the bible - the best-selling book of 19th century America, according to Postman - is essentially a collection of simply told fantastic stories. Indeed, it is quite possibly irrelevant whether the cause of this decline in public discourse is TV or to other factors. The form of TV does not change from country to country, but the content does, and dramatically. The excess information tends to go in one ear and out the other, having no real impact on people's lives. In short, close observation of TV's development in foreign countries makes it clear that the content of TV is shaped by the society it finds itself in, not vice-versa. Naturally TV, introduced into a society with these newfound values and desires, reflected this new mentality and developed its current, entertainment-based content. Besides, such an argument can be applied to almost any form of media. If people fail to do so it is because they no longer see many issues, which were of utmost importance in the 1800's, as being significant today.
Common topics in this essay:
Ourselves Death,
Bronte Austen,
Indeed Postman,
Naturally TV,
Middle Ages,
,
19th century,
public discourse,
content tv,
foreign countries,
Neil Postman,
Amusing Ourselves,
19th century print,
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prevailing attitudes,
amusing ourselves,
ourselves death,
century print society,
serious literature,
19th century society's,
print society,
quality public discourse,
quality public,
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Acceptance Essays
