Culture see, Culture do.

I real Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death before the first week of school was over. With my trusty dictionary to help me with understanding a few words I couldn't even pronounce, I thought I made it through quite easily. There were a couple very intriguing ideas that I thought I had grasped right away, however, after Mr. Lipton handed out the 'study guide' I felt my understanding of the book and its ideas may have landed a little short. I can easily define public discourse as language that is shared by society as a whole. I know it is about the way the public speaks and understands. I also understand that there is a sort of domino effect caused by purpose and function, however, when it came to answering the question:

"Give examples of several institutions involving public discourse and how television has trivialized them."

My mind drew blanks. So, I decided to leave that out of my blog but discuss more the ideas I found interesting. The difference between thinking in a word centered culture and thinking in an image centered culture being one of them. Clearly, most young adults today think in an image centered culture. When I say names like Brad Pitt, or Calvin Klein images of their faces,clips from movies, and often (in my mind) advertisements I have come across in newspapers, magazines and T.V all fill my head, but no words. We have come to an understanding of who these people are based on how we can picture them in our minds. I believe one of the exceptions to this idea is when you think of a band. Say you've never seen them live, or in newspapers, T.V., or magazines because they are not widely known. You haven't purchased the CD so you don't know what the cover looks like- in this case you would imagine the voice of the singer, the licks on the guitar and the all around composition of its music and lyrics. Their words. To take this a step in the other direction some could argue that the lyrics and the sound of the singers voice will leave you to imagine events in your past that it may reminds you of, or what you think the singer might look like, thus, keeping it in an image centered culture.
Another one of my favourite thoughts was the "Now... this." chapter. I never thought much about it while watching news segments. Postman's accuracy in pin pointing how effective the "Now.. this" theory is, brings me back to when I used to watch the news with my mom and dad. More specifically I remember hearing of car crashes, plane crashes and murders beyond any sane persons comprehension, but I never felt that what I heard was a tragedy at the time. I don't believe that I had enough time to let 50 deaths fully embellish itself in my brain before I was hearing of pet fashion shows and a smart kid who knows how to fly a plane.
"There is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating, no political blunder so costly- for that matter, no ball score so tantalizing or weather report so threatening- that it can not be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying"Now...this""
Neil Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death p.99
I've come to realize how slice and dice (hot or cold/ hard or soft) the news could be. Then again, my mind was usually off day dreaming of the very cute news anchor Kyle Christie- sadly- the reason I began participating in my families 6 o'clock news frenzy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KIRjvvAegw&mode=related&search=

I found it interesting to read about the different ( and quite unique) teaching methods like the rock and roll teacher, however, I did not quite understand what was so wrong with televised teaching for young children. For example, sesame street. Postman claims it is teaching by a series of commercials. Commercials by definition are of T.V or radio and are paid for by advertisers; having profit as the main aim. Sesame street is not paid for by advertisements but by the viewers. I do not believe that the 'letter of the day' or the 'number of the day' are there to be used as profitable margins but more as a visual learning tool such as a card with a picture of a dog on it, and the word ' dog' spelled in bold letters underneath. When we teach our children to speak we use words, and images to help them understand what they are saying in both terms of the object and the word. We use the sounds that the dog will make. How is this different? I understand how you could believe that profit is one of their main aims due to the vast majority of merchandise set out for consumers to buy (or better yet kids to beg for) but it is not just sesame street but all cartoons and children's shows that reach for the consumers wallets. It is a way of life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK9RmlTlpE4

I enjoyed reading this book. It did not necessarily persuade me to believe the hard media determinist way of 'culture see culture do'. However, it did inspire me to take media out of my life for 48 hours and see how it effects my everyday life. In two days I was allowed no contact with: T.V, Music, cell phones, telephones, radio, computers, camera's, newspapers, magazines, or even books. It was a couple of really tough days. I went to visit friends in their rooms and we ended up talking more. It was more time consuming, and always a huge let down to go to their rooms and find out they were not there. Usually when I am bored I would dash to a computer and surf the net, or grab one of the latest gossip magazines. I found I went for more walks in the horticultural trails that before my little extravaganza I hadn't known existed on campus. I used to go to the gyms and run on a treadmill now I run outside. I did homework on paper, wrote with a pen( which in all reality isn't further from what I do currently). I talked to my boyfriend instead of sitting ourselves in front of a T.V., we went out for picnics. Instead of watching movies we went for walks on Lakeshore. On the car ride, we would talk instead of blasting our favourite radio station. Over all it made me see how much media interfered with my closest relationships. Needless to say, I love all my gadgets and couldn't fully give them up, but I do set them aside for any intriguing conversation.