Ben, Wyatt, Trevor, Evan

Themes Technology is relied on too much Go back to typography (books) Everything that is written is a metaphor for something. Metaphors are what control the content of our culture

Quotes “ I bring all of this up because what my book is about is how our own tribe is undergoing a vast a trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics.” This quote shows the main agenda of the book- showing that technology is bad

Quotes (cont) “In a print culture, we are apt to say of people who are not intelligent that we must “draw them pictures” so that they may understand. Intelligence implies that one can dwell comfortably without pictures.” “ …our notions of truth and our ideas of intelligence have changed as a result of new media displacing the old.”

Quotes (cont.) “….we are in a race between education and disaster.” “….was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.”

Summary Postman’s main goal in this book is to portray the evolution of media through different time periods. He is biased towards the written side. (against television and media) TV is a majority of junk and little information gets through to people Postman determines that people find more facts are generated in text rather than orally

Summary Cont. He explains that political candidates are not only good with spoken words but they must also have great policies and written work Newspapers are distinguished as a base of knowledge in the 18 th and 19 th century but we are now transitioning to television media

Summary (cont.) It is connected to the book, “Brave New World” to make a point. He connects both Huxley’s prediction that people will become a trivial culture “drugs and orgies” and in this book how the world will be too reliant on technologies and adore them. Both getting to the point of the world’s culture being distracted and preoccupied.

Is Postman for or against TV? He is not totally against TV due to the fact that it is a daily part of almost everybody’s lives. TV’s main goal is for entertainment. Gaining followers and doing what it takes to make a popular show are entertainer’s goals.

TV continued His general idea is that TV should be only a moderate, beneficial device for our knowledge. We should keep using typography although TV may sometimes be necessary. Although he agrees somewhat with TV he changes his opinion occasionally. TV is filled with junk so why not read it through typewritten information and just avoid TV? (You can get facts from both of them, so read and avoid the junk from TV.)