Discussion Forum
The book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, explores the idea of how television has affected the levels of public disclosure within contemporary America. It highlights the idea that television is slowly causing humans to recede intellectually. Therefore, the idea that Postman brings forward of Sesame Street bringing forth the notion that education is a private endeavor is quite similar to that of Crawford as suggested by Lule; when he presents that humans need to engage with others to differentiate themselves from others.
The reason that these ideas are similar is that the manner in which Postman suggests that the program makes education seem like a boring affair that does not encourage growth as a social endeavor for humans. In this way, it is like the program encourages its viewers to stay home glued to their televisions watching the program as that is where they are meant to learn more than they would if they went to school. In the same way, Crawford encourages people to go out and seek interactions like education that will allow them to develop their own individual personalities and interests. These ideas thereby point towards technology as the central feature that either frustrates or promotes the outcomes of these actions.
In this sense, technology is seen to accelerate movement towards the notion that education is bad. It also encourages humans to make use of it more since it is supposedly more fun to use and learn from that educational institution and books are. Thus, technology can be seen to promote and fuel the same idea; it also facilitates a reduction in the ecology of attention in addition to promoting education as a non-social endeavor.
Works Cited
Lule, Jack. “On Reading “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” Chapter 10.” Medium, 17 Nov. 2018, medium.com/@jacklule/on-reading-amusing-ourselves-to-death-chapter-10-84b3101c4633.
