I was thinking about chapter 1 of Amusing Ourselves to Death and thought about why Neil Postman thinks what he thinks. What decides how we think? Is it the way we are raised, our personalities, or the generation we are from? Is it a little bit of all of that?
Postman mentions Marshall McLuhan and how he tries to stay true to McLuhan's teaching. But is it just people he has met or does he think the way he does because of inventions he has seen as well? I looked it up, and Postman was born in 1931. That means he saw the end of WWII, the first man on the moon, and tons of other amazing events that changed the course of history. The first chapter discusses inventions as "tools" and how for every tool we create an "idea is embedded that goes beyond the function of the thing itself". Does he believe television will be the next "medium" because of the inventions he's seen, the people he's met, or something else?
Personally, I believe it is a little of everything. The people we meet and how we are raised definitely affect our whole lives. A bad home can change our outlook on the world dramatically, just as much as being spoiled can. I also think that the things we have seen can change our outlook- not just physically, but events that have taken place. Certainly a veteran of a war would have a changed outlook on life, but his family would too. Though some might say they aren’t comparable as tragedies, perhaps our 9/11 attack will be similar to Neil Postman's holocaust. Both took place in our childhoods and have affected the world around us dramatically.
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I agree that the people we have met, how we are raised, and the events we have experienced can indeed affect the way we think and act.
ReplyDeleteI thought mentioning the Holocaust and 9/11 were great examples of two events which have affected the way people think. 9/11, for example, has affected many countries around the world. Due to that event, many now think differently of certain ethnic groups and, of course, are more cautious about things such as air plane rides and items which passengers carry.
I would also like to add that I strongly believe that inventions can also influence how we think. Such inventions include the paper, which leads to the book, and the television. These two things have had great affect on how we think and how we go about doing things. If we take two different people, one from a time period where books are dominant, and a time period where television is a part of daily life, we would have two people with differing ideas and thoughts, thus proving inventions affect how we think.