everything he said over 20 years ago rings so much louder and truer today

@luciavillanueva7407

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it does. I was a student in the M.A. in Media Ecology during his chariman at NYU. I take the education I poured blood, sweat and tears to achieve there into my intellectual development to this day. Having worked in tech for 14 years -everything he talks about is more and more true each day.

@Kyle-bb9zp

10 ай бұрын

Yep you got that right. It was better 41 years ago things were normal as when I was a kid.

Postman urged us to ask some questions and he was kind enough to sum himself up at 00:50:40. The seven questions Neil Postman throw at technology: 1. What is the problem to which a technology claims to be the solution? 2. Whose problem is it? 3. What new problems will be created as a result of solving an old one? 4. Which people and institutions will be most harmed? 5. What changes in language are being promoted? 6. What shifts in economic and political power are likely to result? 7. What alternative media might be made from a technology?

@MSHembree

4 жыл бұрын

You're awesome, Thomas; thank you!

@MarcDufresneosorusrex

4 жыл бұрын

@@MSHembree yes good questions leads to better comprehension,.. although perhaps not always wide acceptance : (

Neil Postman's wisdom is sorely missed in our current technology driven culture.

Postman's writings are among the most important things I read during my 40 years of teaching. So much sense there, so challenging at the same time. I wanted to be a better teacher because of his teaching.

A sane voice in an insane world.

I have a lot of respect for Postman. A true genius!

I have recently read a few of his books and wish I could have met him. As with all fine writers, he doesn't make his ideas unnecessarily obscure.

Postman always delivered 📮

@MarcDufresneosorusrex

4 жыл бұрын

amen!

@Infidelio

11 ай бұрын

He was first class.

Neil Postman is right; "technology" has become today's religion. It's so sad that today's people are so confused and lost.

@MarcDufresneosorusrex

4 жыл бұрын

what do you mean ?

Amazing speech from an inspiring mind. Will be greatly missed...

Thank you so much for sharing this lecture with Mr. Postman.

A lot of what the late Dr. Postman said still rings true today. This was a great talk.

watching 20 years later

@user-vk6pl9mn8d

4 жыл бұрын

even for the March,2020

This man's work should be better known.

@ThePayola123

4 жыл бұрын

But that would be like asking people to actually think for themselves. And that's a very, very, very tall order.

@MSHembree

4 жыл бұрын

Christian universities such as Liberty in VA are reviving Media Ecology principles in a new PhD program (Communication). I love this man. Technopoly, 1993, p.183-4 good place to start a pedagogy.

With advent of the smartphone our quality of life has definitely gone down. We seem to be hopelessly addicted to it. And as usual we only have ourselves to blame.

@studiedWonder

10 ай бұрын

I’m not so sure. I think any technology transforms life and ‘quality’ is always wondered about. The car surely changed things and you could easily wonder about the quality of life and if we progressed at all with it. I like the smartphone and I think the pro outweighs the con, in spite of, or regardless that … “There is no escaping from ourselves”

Questions Neil Postman says we should ask when evaluating a technology... What's the problem? Whose problem is it? Does it create new problems? Who will be harmed? What change in language? Shifts in power? Alternative media to tech?

@MarcDufresneosorusrex

4 жыл бұрын

thak you vm

Such a lovely voice he had.

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out the glaring mistakes in the introduction - Prof Postman is referred to as 'Dr Simon' while noting his receipt of the George Orwell Award for Clarity in Language (!), his book Technopoly (1992) is mistakenly named by the speaker, 'Technology', and Amusing Ourselves To Death is erroneously called a '1960's classic' (it was published in 1985).

@antoinettekankindi6807

10 ай бұрын

Hahaha, you are right, and that's what technology does to people

What a minute Mr Postman!

MUCH better than a Ted talk!

You clearly haven't read his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, which I had assumed you had read, considering your strong opinions against his ideas. He's nothing against television. Or any other medium of discourse, for that matter. What he has an issue with is when a medium of communication, such as television, tries to become more than it is capable of becoming. Television is no place for rational, intellectual discussions; it's for entertainment. But this, unfortunately, is turning [1/2]

50:30 - Neil Postman’s 7 questions we must ask about technology… 1. What is the problem to which a technology claims to be the solution? 2. Whose problem is it? 3. What new problems will be created because of solving an old one? 4. Which people and institutions will be most harmed? 5. What changes in language are being promoted? 6. What shifts in economic and political power are likely to result? 7. What alternative media might be made from a technology?

Which of his books have you read? So far, I've read Amusing Ourselves to Death, and Building a Bridge to the 18th Century. It would have been a pleasure to meet him. There is currently no one in our culture asking the questions he would about technology. I love this quote from Henry David Thoreau, "All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end." If you haven't read Propaganda by Edward Bernays's, do so. It will further open your eyes.

@MSHembree

4 жыл бұрын

Technopoly, 1993, is a must-read. pp183-184 for example. Reading it again.

@lloydpopp13

3 жыл бұрын

@@MSHembree currently reading technopoly 👌

He was right. Look at what has happened to us, the vast majority of people look at a phone every two mins, even while driving.

There is some serious salt in the KZread section of a lecture condemning overzealous internet use, who could have seen that coming O_O

14:35. "i have no interest in the internet." on the other hand, we learned this via the internet.

Great vid

The Amish communities are the only societies I know of that are able to slow themselves down enough to evaluate the new technological gadget and then decide whether or not to adopt it. They are very practiced in the process. Does anyone else know of any other societies that are good at consciously adopting or rejecting the latest new thing?

"Amusing Ourselves to Death," where can I find the whole lecture ? (C-SPAN ?)

@user-vk6pl9mn8d

4 жыл бұрын

A book he has written

Respect

Hey y'all, we're watching and discussing this lecture using a medium Neil Postman might not have thought necessary. Do you think KZread solved a truly important problem?

@johnblalack9309

8 жыл бұрын

my thought exactly--Postman had a sense of humor though--he would probably smile and say "a silly medium put to it's best use"

@johnblalack9309

8 жыл бұрын

or rather "a silly technology as useful medium"

@nathanyates4944

7 жыл бұрын

also with its downfalls if you lack self control, getting sucked into meme compilations..... guilty

@pylgrym

6 жыл бұрын

As of this reply, we are 17+ years into the new millennium. The problems with inventions have multiplied exponentially. All this new stuff just doesn't improve the human dilemma.

@piorunekk

Жыл бұрын

@@pylgrym You were right.

I’m reading one of his books on my tablet computer and watched this video on the same device. Oooooops!

@sh.a.3333

4 жыл бұрын

Technology is a tool like a knife, and it's up to us how to use it. You can use it to become more enlightened and wise or can use it to become more dumb and lost. You seem to be using it the right way:)

Visionary. But personally I love cruise control.

@seanwebb605

5 жыл бұрын

ManInTheBigHat My van still has manual windows.

@gibran8751

5 жыл бұрын

I wish my car still had manual windows. Always having to fix it.

1:12:53

Add to this the insane push today towards having a minimalist lifestyle where books are encouraged to be thrown away, and people are actively doing so.

Watching this on an iPhoneXR

Watched

The latest "music" or cat video ? one million views in a week. This gets 45 thousand in five years. No other indictment of the public intellectual capacity is necessary.

Can't view any replies to the initial comment of various users...

this lecture leaves out a couple major questions to the contrary. 1. Will this technology be made regardless of what choice I make. 2. Who will make this technology if I do not? There's a clear potential downside to making an atomic bomb (end of life on Earth), but would that bomb inevitably be made if we didn't make it? Would the makers be more irresponsible than us?

Wow

wowooww!!! 40:35

Anyone find it ironic that we are watching this on laptops/computers?

@sameash3153

7 жыл бұрын

Charlie George no

@patrickmccormack4318

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, ironic :)

@ThePayola123

4 жыл бұрын

I'm watching it on a throwaway phone...!!!

His reason for doing so was that he saw those media of communications as a decadence in the most basic form, straying from more intellectual media. I would love, no sarcasm intended, for you to reference me to something which would help me to better understand your reason spewing invective.

What is his critic to Al Gore?

@InusualTvMex

9 жыл бұрын

Homework? Gabriela Bernal?

@lauragalvan7902

9 жыл бұрын

Qué se ha cambiado?

@jerogallo.

9 жыл бұрын

no sale o si?

@ThePayola123

4 жыл бұрын

Did you mean: 'What's his critique of Al Gore'...???

@Bayo106

10 ай бұрын

Unbeknownst to many Al gore was key in initiating the creation of the Internet. Some people think that's a lie but it's true

sweet 56:28

Somebody slept through McLuhan's the Medium is the Message.

Here's a great video of Richard Grove going over Neil's book: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZWt_mpOnnJqokps.html

our supposedly intellectual discussions on TV into nothing more than entertainment, since television isn't capable of hosting such discussions. The written word can, however, since what you experience is simply the bare information, without any added functionality, which only lends to become a distraction. [2/2]

17:45 - porn, conspiracy theories, online gambling, narcissism (facebook).

I believe "they" put this man in an early grave because he was beginning to influence too many people into questioning the current paradigm.

@reck0n3r

5 жыл бұрын

Rentaghost okish Quite possible. It's on us to, first of all, understand his (and others of his ilk) work, and then to share or discuss them with others as much as possible, while also trying to incorporate it on some level in our day to day activities, including the sort lf work we do. I really think Postman is one of the most important minds that few people know about. I fear that most of our society today, even if they were to pick up his works and read them, are so far gone and disconnected from themselves and their humanity, that they won't fully comprehend what they're reading, nor take away enough from it to be meaningful, because indeed, we have Amused Ourselves to Death. Regardless, that shouldn't stop us from trying. I've been trying to get his name out there over the past 4 years or so since I learned about him. Also, and I think most great minds would agree, it's perhaps not so much the personnage or their written works that need to remain alive, but the ideas - and ideas can only stay alive in people who are alive, rather than zombies. We ourselves are living books (we do have a spine, afterall!). So it's up to us as individuals to engage ourselves and one another with these ideas - which are ultimately rooted in truth, and preserving the human spirit.

At some point pen and paper was technology, as was literacy and as was language.

@NJGuy1973

6 ай бұрын

Have you read Amusing Ourselves To Death?

If only he would see the world now, he’d be so disappointed

@smurfmama2020

3 ай бұрын

My thought exactly

I'm sure some cavemen argued against the prolonged use of fire against fire-wielding cavemen. Are we to limit the use of our progressive tools in fear that it is taking away our culture from us, that in doing so would slow our adaptation to such tools, making it extremely hard to express our thoughts and perspectives in the most simple efficient rapid convenient way that may have ever and will be possible for human beings.

@MarcDufresneosorusrex

4 жыл бұрын

@Keith Jones plus fire was not life altering; it was and still is one of the fundamental building blocks of life on earth according to the chinese Wu xing at least

@rw-vr6vw

9 ай бұрын

The most simple rapid convenient way of expressing thoughts is through audible verbiage. Speaking to another will not be surpassed as it is the conveyance of thought and emotion in exact immediacy.

Postman disappoints me as more of a Luddite than his writing ever let on. Amusing Ourselves to Death seems to have a McLuhan style reservation on judgement with a cool observational democratic view. He seems to have a much more haughty, arrogant conservative-authoritarian view of technology and society. Great insights, but I find him more convincing without conclusions.

I certainly don't miss him. He was a Luddite when it came to any kind of new story telling medium and a enemy to writers and the creative class everywhere.

@nkenchington6575

Жыл бұрын

Weird conclusions.