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Summary: In the end, it's worth reading
Review: Postman at times presents some very weak arguements, but he does cause the reader to think, and at the end of the book, he finally comes across as a rational man with a worthy cause. I highly recommend this book. Postman makes great use of the english language, and his point is worth pondering.
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Summary: Brilliantly written analysis of relationship with technology
Review: The book describes a history of the impact of technology on human culture. It describes why American culture has a deep confidence in technological solutions, even if the problems are more readily solved by simple non-technological changes. Postman is consistently insightful in his disection of why we have the relationship with technology that we do. Highly recommended for anyone that works in the technology industry.
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Summary: Rather Pointless
Review: I do not agree with many things in this book, I never really found a point to it. I will say, it did make me think of things in a different perspective that I might not of ever contimplated. Still it did not change my views of technology. I see no reason to read this other than as a college requirement.
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Summary: Pope Postman
Review: This book was my first encounter with Postman and I intend to read 'Amusing...'. With all the references to 'God', implicitly the Christian god, it seems Postman wants to be a self-ordained pope of a new index. For a more balanced approach I recommend Jane Healey's 'Failure to Connect', even though it focuses on computer use in education. Thand dog that no communist regime can burn Postman's book and that no pope claims it was delivered on stone tablets from a mountain top. For the opposite view, see the sadly neglected Timothy Leary's 'Chaos and Cyberculture'.
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Summary: Mr Ramble
Review: I also had to read this book for a college class. I find postman to be a true rambler. I rolled my eyes several times and procrastinated considerably during the reading of this book. I still come away from this book thinking well what it wrong with being a technopoly? Perhaps it's our destiny? So be it.
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Summary: A inspiring book that allows you to reevaluate your own view
Review: An inspiring book that had me looking at the way that I live my life, and how dependant I am on technology. Neil Postman stresses that without understanding what it would have been like without the impressions of technology, we cannot fully understand how it is taking us [as people in general] away from our natural cultures. Explaining the possitive points of technology first, he then continues by stressing where and when technocracies took over, and offers some sugjestions on how to solve them. I recomend this for anyone that has ever questioned technology or its hidden motives.
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Summary: Great analysis of technological evolution.
Review: Clever and resourceful. It is fascinating the way Postman interweaves different aspect of life, such as printing press, IQ test, language, education, and polling system, into Technopoly. Postman's argument of American culture becoming too technologicaly oriented and loosing the traditions is a legitimate point. However, he ignors the fact that America does not have a tradition. America is trying to stablish a tradiotion. The tradition that America is "loosing" was not American tradition, it came with the pilgrims. As Postman is full of fascinationg information himself, he argues that we don't need any more information, "Technopolist stands firm in believing that what the world needs is yet more information...Information is dangerous when it has no place to go...Information without regulation can be lethal." But, he does not prescribe that, how much information is enough information? And how could we regulate information in a democratic society? The system is set-up for gathering infromation. Students are incouraged to collect infromation. One of the main points of Postman's argument is that the rise of technopoly demolished religious believes and therefore the traditions. Although the topics are repetitious, I found the book easy to read. Postman provokes many questions, such as, are we controlling technology or technology is controlling us? What is the purpose of history? Are we happy about where technology is taking us? Is it too late, or can technology be controlled? What about God?
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Summary: Are you concerned with the evolution of American culture?
Review: I'm disappointed with some of the negative reviews I've read about this book. I think this is one of the most important books written this decade. Postman is not the Luddite that many make him out to be. He simply recognizes that American culture is evolving with technological advancement. New technologies do not simply add to our culture. They fundamentaly change it. Some of the changes are good, but we must realize the negative effects as well.
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Summary: Poor argumentation, great writing.
Review: After reading Amusing Ourselves to Death, this book was a huge disappointment. The main problem is that most of the book boils down to a statement that technology is taking away our good time-honored value systems, and putting new ones in their place. Indeed, the book goes into *great* length to describe and contrast those new values with old ones. The problem is - Postman never actually says *why* it is that those new values are bad, what is it about technology that makes it so inherently evil. Most of the time he just authoritatively states it is, or provides a furiously hand-wavy explanation involving the destruction of the 'moral fiber' in our societies. Unfortunately for his readers, not only is the main argument in the book weak, but so are the supporting arguments that seem to be full of strawman arguments, unsupported assertions, and other such. (This gem, for example, is from page 112: "The plain fact is that humans have a unique, biologically rooted, i! ntangible mental life which in some limited respects can be simulated by a machine but can never be duplicated." That's a very strong statement, but Postman doesn't provide any sort of support for it. Apparently, we're supposed to 'just believe' him, even though he demands that we don't do so for anyone else.) All in all, this book seems to be more of a haphazard collection of anecdotes than a coherent argument, and is a real disappointment especially when compared to Amusing. Too bad, because I expected more of Postman.
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Summary: An excellent view on the impact of technology.
Review: I found this book to be one of the best I have read on the subject. Contrary to other reviewers here, I thought it was easy to read. Postman provides both a view on the changes that are occurring in society due to technology, as well as look at the dark side associated with our assumption that technology only works to solve the problem it was created for. Though he does get a little preachy near the end, I think that we would do well to heed his admonition that trusting technology too much leads to loss of liberty, privacy, and humanism.
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