Part 4/8:
Following Adler's guide, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death presents a thought-provoking critique of television and its role in shaping public discourse. Written during the 1980s, Postman’s arguments resonate strongly in our current era dominated by streaming and social media.
Postman posits that the shift from a print-based culture to one driven by visual entertainment has transformed politics into a spectacle. As a result, we tend to elect leaders based not on their arguments, but on how they make us feel. This constant bombardment of entertainment-focused information leads what Postman calls "context-free information," which distracts us from necessary, meaningful engagement.