The Future: A Brave New World?

Postman did an excellent job by stating that television is a corrupting pleasure; however, I believe that what he meant was that watching television isn’t a bad thing at all. If we could all be made to understand what television does, and if children in general can start being aware that television is only for enjoyment and not to learn from it, then we might be able to save our society from becoming a Brave New World. In a Brave New World, people laugh and don’t think, but they have no idea what they are laughing about. According to Chapter 11, technology will keep on corrupting our nation until we understand that technology is really an awful thing, and it should only be use for our entertainment, not for the information. At the bottom of page 155 Postman claimed that “When a population becomes distracted by trivia… culture-death is a clear possibility.” When kids begin to watch television, their period of learning has already commenced and they will follow whatever and to an extent mimic what the television programs or shows declare. Postman is afraid that as kids do that, fewer and fewer children are going to go back to the good old newspaper and learning from that. Cultural death is most definitely a clear possibility because all of the so called “cultures” on television are joined along with all of the stereotypes that give kids the wrong impression. Will our society crumble slowly as we watch television and amuse ourselves to death?