Towards Technopoly: Reading Neil Postman
Reading Neil Postman in 20xx
Neil Postman was right
Neil Postman was a prophet. Not the kind that deals in predictions, but one who warns. He spent his career as an educator and communications theorist critiquing developments in media, education, and politics. His main critique wasn’t that society was going to hell in a hand-basket, it was the unwillingness to consider where our choices were leading us. Postman saw a public that seemed to care more about the features of the hand-basket than where it was going, and he sounded the alarm.
He wrote several books, the best known being Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), where he surveys the history of media and explores, in particular, the shaping power of television. It’s a worthwhile read made all the more enjoyable by Postman’s humour.
Read the rest of Towards Technopoly series at Common Pursuits
Matt Civico