"What is television? What kinds of conversations does it permit? What are the intellectual tendencies it encourages? What sort of culture does it produce?" said Neil Postman (84). In this modern day, everyone is caught up in entertainment. Instead of going out into the world and learning new things for ourselves, we would rather sit on the couch and watch television. What we view on the screen is not always the truth.
When I turn on the television, there are shows that do not promote the correct way to behave. Yes, they may be entertaining to watch, but what is it encouraging? The media will project anything on television to get views. Instead of going camping and learning about different types of frogs, we would rather learn about them on Discovery Channel. It distracts us from getting up and learning about things for ourselves. "...Every technology has an inherent bias" (84). The media has implanted into our minds that we are suppose to look a certain way, and if we look different, we are an outcast. In the world today, most households have more than one television. Most people can sit and watch it for two to three hours a day, but what kind of culture and generation is it producing? I believe generations are going more lazy as time goes by because of the media. What is the point of reading books, exploring the world, or learning new things when they are just a click away?
In Amusing Ourselves to Death, the author, Neil Postman, is explaining why the world is slowly being taken over by technology. We are holding off doing things that are truly important for distractions such as television, and cell phones. Although watching your favorite show is not a crime, but what is the show encouraging is the real question. Is technology taking over our world, and the way we view things?
Quite frankly, I believe that technology has already taken over our world. Where do you look and NOT see technology? We are already corrupted by technology and our society fails to function without it.
ReplyDeleteAs to your question about what the media is encouraging, I truly agree that most shows are pointless, and sometimes even relay the wrong ways as to how the youth should live their lives. These are all results of our demands of entertainment. I believe that these shows represent what we, the society, influence the media to be. Producers would not continue to create shows displaying such immoral practices if there are no viewers. I believe that rather than the media encouraging us with these shows, WE are encouraging the media.
Clearly, technology is in the process of taking over our world. I agree that television isn't really promoting the righ things either. Yes, we watch most television shows for entertainment, but to tell you the truth, watching these shows is pointless. We waste away at least a good one or two hours watching these pointless shows that we think might benefit us in the future when they really don't. Yes, some shows to promote good messages and encourage appropriate things, but like you said, why don't we just go out and learn them ourselves?
ReplyDeleteTechnology is taking over the world because it is everywhere we go. Television is a media that has a huge part in influencing our views. All technology influences us greatly, and we do not even notice most of the time. Most television shows are pointless with no educational purpose at all. They are all made for entertainment, and they can affect the way that we act. Television shows even display many things that could never happen, so basically most television is filled with lies. Though the television changes the way we view everything, we still demand more of it. I think that some television shows are encouraging, but most are distracting us from viewing things differently and are keeping us from learning things ourselves.
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