I am yawning like crazy at the moment and got less than four hours of sleep last night, I stayed up until my body felt numb and I could barely open my eyes. Why I torture my body this way I do not know, but what I do know is that playing a game of Tetris while talking on the phone with my oh so nocturnal best friend until 3am is probably more comforting for me than getting a good night’s sleep. I’m not sure why I have such little self-control over myself, but technology has taken over my life. And the sad part about that is that I let it completely control me, I LOVE it when it takes over me. To me, the computer is more addicting than chocolate, coffee, sugar, or (not that I know but I assume so) alcohol and drugs. Yes, it’s my soma and I do not know if I can live for a month without touching my phone, using the internet, or listening to my iPod. Less even pass by a day where I don’t look at pixilated images and captchas.
The thing is, I live in this world that is completely surrounded with the most high-tech gadgets and gizmos. The United States of America is one of the most fortunate countries, yes we are in a deep hole with this economic crisis but it’s not like half of us have aids or it’s not like there’s not enough food to go by. It’s not AS BAD as other third world countries have it out there. But then again, I don’t ever watch the news, or read the newspaper, or have much comprehension with the economic situation at the moment. What I meant to say was that I live in this world. The one where there’s television sets in practically every room, computers for every person, iPhones for each member of the family, and I don’t think that I will ever change. Unless some national disaster occurs and some alien species come to earth and completely corrupt our internet access and decides to take away all of our technology for their own use. I don’t think that I will be able to think like the people in the previous centuries used to be able to think. My brain and body has been wired to technology. I need to listen to my iPod in order to sleep, I NEED to check my mail first thing in the morning, I NEED my phone constantly within arms reach, and I NEED to type my essays! I admit that I’ve never noticed this before, but WRITING out my essays has been the most complicated thing since learning how to tie shoelaces. I lose track of where I put the loop, and which loop the bunny ears goes through.if the bunny ears go through a loop, or is it hoop?
My point is that even after reading Amusing Ourselves to Death I have not changed one bit. I am more informative and more conscious of certain things like how ridiculous the news is nowadays, advertising, the media, ALL FOR ENTERTAINMENT! So I am more alert of when I am being brainwashed, but my habits are still the same. I tried the technology fast and I do not like it one bit, I’m sorry Ms. Fletcher but I cannot cannot cannot EVER live like that. I understand now that our generation is immersed in this sea of entertainment and brain manipulation. I doubt that I’m the only one that’s being taken over by this technological monster, My cousin upstairs wastes his whole day looking at a box that “stimulates the senses” by letting him experience what it’s like to shoot people. I told him that I find him wasting his life away staring at this box, but downstairs I’m doing the same exact thing.
The thing is, I live in this world that is completely surrounded with the most high-tech gadgets and gizmos. The United States of America is one of the most fortunate countries, yes we are in a deep hole with this economic crisis but it’s not like half of us have aids or it’s not like there’s not enough food to go by. It’s not AS BAD as other third world countries have it out there. But then again, I don’t ever watch the news, or read the newspaper, or have much comprehension with the economic situation at the moment. What I meant to say was that I live in this world. The one where there’s television sets in practically every room, computers for every person, iPhones for each member of the family, and I don’t think that I will ever change. Unless some national disaster occurs and some alien species come to earth and completely corrupt our internet access and decides to take away all of our technology for their own use. I don’t think that I will be able to think like the people in the previous centuries used to be able to think. My brain and body has been wired to technology. I need to listen to my iPod in order to sleep, I NEED to check my mail first thing in the morning, I NEED my phone constantly within arms reach, and I NEED to type my essays! I admit that I’ve never noticed this before, but WRITING out my essays has been the most complicated thing since learning how to tie shoelaces. I lose track of where I put the loop, and which loop the bunny ears goes through.if the bunny ears go through a loop, or is it hoop?
My point is that even after reading Amusing Ourselves to Death I have not changed one bit. I am more informative and more conscious of certain things like how ridiculous the news is nowadays, advertising, the media, ALL FOR ENTERTAINMENT! So I am more alert of when I am being brainwashed, but my habits are still the same. I tried the technology fast and I do not like it one bit, I’m sorry Ms. Fletcher but I cannot cannot cannot EVER live like that. I understand now that our generation is immersed in this sea of entertainment and brain manipulation. I doubt that I’m the only one that’s being taken over by this technological monster, My cousin upstairs wastes his whole day looking at a box that “stimulates the senses” by letting him experience what it’s like to shoot people. I told him that I find him wasting his life away staring at this box, but downstairs I’m doing the same exact thing.
But what change does Postman expect from us? After reading his book, does he expect us to just suddenly rid the world of computers and game consoles? If there was ONE John, ONE savage, ONE person who is able to completely recognize the denseness of what our world has come to today….what could that “John” do? In both 1984 AND Brave New World, the “protagonist” either dies or just gives up trying to make a difference. Can the minority really affect the majority? Can we bring reason and logic back to the world? Is there any way that our google-everything-generation can proceed back to the way it was? Alduos Huxley once said “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself…. Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
I think if there was a chance to save ourselves from our technological addictions, it'd be an incredibly, near-impossible slim one, so we don't even bother to change anything because it's too much effort and television has taught us to be lazy. In Brave New World, technology and civilization was far beyond salvaging. I think our world has reached that point. If everyone found out that technology and entertainment is imprisoning us, I don't think it would make that much of a difference. Some people would be moved to make a change, but most of us would still love technology all the same.
ReplyDeleteI haven't even tried the 24 hours without using technology - all I can imagine is myself curling up 1/8th through the day like a cocaine addict experiencing withdrawals. I think the thing though is that old-fashioned fun and public discourse is like the wine on the bottom shelf. Technology and all this entertainment is the wine on the top shelf. After getting not just a taste, but an entire endless buffet, it's just impossible to go back. Well, it IS possible, but who is really willing to give up the good stuff just because someone tells us it's bad for us? (We had to read that Spurlock fast food book last year and even after he said how bad and damaging fast food is, it didn't stop me from eating another burger.) I mean, both you and I have finished Postman's book and if anything, I think it only gave us more to talk about at the most ungodly hours of the a.m. day, but like you said, it hardly changed anything except for the fact that you're more informative and conscious. Postman's book reminds me of the peek-a-boo world he talks about; information appears as fast as it disappears, and even if the news it brings is a little distressing, we're not moved to take action, and soon enough, we've moved on to the next thing and forgotten about it.
As far as I know, Huxley did not provide an answer for the problem but rather presented it to the public. But Postman did write that there were two ways to change public opinion. One way was from a satire comedy show (though he did say that the chances of it working were slim to none) but he also wrote that teachers letting their students become aware of how they are being brainwashed was the most effective solution.
ReplyDeleteI’m actually very happy that I’m not the only one who views the world in this perspective now. Whatever Ms. Fletcher’s motive was in making us read these books for the summer could’ve either been one of two things: changing our world altogether or just to make us “well-informed” of where and what we live in. Or maybe just because it was interesting, but either way we all learned something significantly true and important about our world, something that is actual news and worth knowing.
ReplyDeleteFor a moment before I clicked the “post’ button I actually felt a bit reluctant on posting what I said up there. It could’ve been because I was afraid of getting a negative response or just felt that what I was thinking was just all in my head. Hearing it from someone else made it much more convincing that we live in a world that’s corrupted and ruled by the media, or did I go too far as to say it as plainly as that?
Melinda! You brought up Morgan Spurlock’s Don’t Eat This Book and that reminds me of a major point that he made about advertising. Advertising companies started using slogans and repetitive melodies to boost up commercial sales towards children, and catchy phrases like “Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!” seemed to have taken over channels like Nickelodian and certain channels just for kids. Doesn’t it resemble the hypnotic processes that the people in Brave New World have to sleep through? Commercials are as repetitive, brainwashing, and controlling as the hypnotic voices in the children’s room. They make you feel the need to buy something that isn’t even necessary, they manipulate you in a systematic concealed way. I just find it very intriguing that there is so so so so many resemblances between their world and ours. Almost as if Huxley just wrote about our world in a more simple and concise way, yet it seems so vague and unfamiliar. So abstract that we think it’s a futuristic world, when really…it’s OURS!
Tricia, I understand that if teachers made us aware of this process, which is what Ms. Fletcher has accomplished, we would be well-informed of what we need to know. The only problem is that we seem to have fallen into a hole so deep that I personally assume we cannot dig ourselves out of this one. Either it's impossible or I just honestly don't know how to solve this kind of a problem. Postman had written this book way before the internet was well used around the world and I think even before the internet. (I'm not precisely sure)
ReplyDeleteSo I surmise that he intended people to solve that problem long ago, to let people become aware and do something about it. But now what? We use technology in almost every aspect of our lives and we overuse it until the original epistemological reason as to why it was invented in the first place just recede from view. It's even more ironic since Postman was trying to point out that television and epistemology is an incompatible match. So what can we do now that we've completely been swallowed by the entertainment monster.
I feel like we've just amused ourselves to death. :[
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