Neil Postman
Media critic and educator (1931 to 2003) whose Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) argued that television turns public discourse, from politics to news to religion, into entertainment.
Neil Postman did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThis book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
↗Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin, 2006 edition of the 1985 book)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsTelevision is our culture's principal mode of knowing about itself.
↗Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin, 2006 edition of the 1985 book)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsAmericans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other.
↗Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin, 2006 edition of the 1985 book)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsWe are now a culture whose information, ideas and epistemology are given form by television, not by the printed word.
↗Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin, 2006 edition of the 1985 book)archive.org All 5 from this book
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Their wordsEach medium, like language itself, makes possible a unique mode of discourse by providing a new orientation for thought, for expression, for sensibility.
↗Amusing Ourselves to Death (Penguin, 2006 edition of the 1985 book)archive.org All 5 from this book