Amusing Ourselves to Death Summary

Amusing Ourselves to Death Summary Neil Postman in his speech called “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” which he gave in the year of 1984, takes a point of view which explains how the American society is slowly trying to have entertainment over-take every aspect of their lives. He explains how America is losing its desire to read or explore education and informative literary sources. He says in his speech, “America is engaged in the world’s most ambitious experiment to accommodate itself to the technological distractions made possible by the electric plug. He states statistics that ninety-eight percent of all American homes have a television set and fifty-one percent have two or more television sets in 1984. He’s main point is that Americans use the television to provide entertainment to all aspects of their world. This includes the news, educational programs, and even religion. He says that, “television is transforming all serious public business into junk. America is now forced with creating programs that will catch the attention of an audience that is used to having entertaining aspects in all forms of their life. In order to give a point of view or some other important information, television needs to present it in a way to keep the viewer interested. Neil Postman is afraid that America is starting to lose the ability to engage in discussions and lectures without an entertaining aspect in it. He says, “America is the world’s first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death. ”