Still Amusing Ourselves to Death in the 21st Century

Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, is considered by many communication experts to be a landmark book in the field of mass communication. It is over twenty years old and continues to be published. However, this makes some people wonder how relevant Postman’s book is in the twenty-first century.

Postman’s main idea, which is that public discourse is becoming centered around entertainment on television, is still relevant today. Just think about how much and what is on television today. Several network stations have programs, like Entertainment Tonight!, which focus entirely on the news of entertainers in Hollywood. As if, like Postman comments, the regular evening news is not entertainment enough, there are now shows like Entertainment Tonight! Network television stations are constantly coming up with newer and newer game shows, like Deal or No Deal, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, 1 vs. 100, and the list continues.

There are so many stations now compared to when Postman began writing that a person can spend minutes entertaining themselves just by flicking past channels until they find something which entertains them more. Not only are there more stations, but there is newer technology, like the internet, that helps spread the entertainment value of television to wider audiences. It is clear, by the end of the book, that television back in the 1980’s was becoming more entertainment oriented, and it only takes a few seconds to think about the amount of stations and what is on them today to understand nothing has changed since then.

I felt the book was also relevant in my personal life. When I thought about what I watch, I could not think of anything I watch on television that I watch for any other reason than for entertainment. It is because of the increase in stations and the amount of entertainment shown on these stations that I feel that this book is more relevant today than decades ago. More people need to read this book because it serves to make people aware and think about what they are watching, which I think is what Postman wanted people to do. By writing this book, Postman has not demonized television, but given Americans a book long warning of why it is important for them to be media literate and think critically about what is entertaining them on television.