Author Archives: blakethacker

I think that Postman’s argument translates extremely well to the modern digital age of learning. Educational content on television is something that I am largely unfamiliar with, but I do spent quite a lot of time in the educational sector of YouTube, and I would essentially liken those digital videos to the shows Postman critiquesContinue reading “Blog Post 10”

Paragraphs for Discussion: Page 126: “But what virtues attach…” Page 135: “This is the lesson…” Page 141: “Tyrants of all varieties…”

Reflection: Postman may seem to be attacking religion in this chapter. The same may be said of Drive In Jesus. In actuality, these two pieces are only attacking a certain kind of religion, a kind that cheapens and makes less important the things that make religion significant. Religion is inextricably tied to the holy placesContinue reading “Blog Post 8”

One sentence summary: Postman demonstrates that even though we are deluged with information every day via television news, we are still not any more informed because of the fact that news is presented as entertainment. Important paragraphs: Page 110, “My point is that we are by now…” & Page 103, “This perception of a newsContinue reading “Blog Post 7”

One sentence summary: Postman discusses the extent to which television has influenced not only our consumption of media, but the way we behave in every aspect of our daily lives. Page 87 “Of course, to say that television is entertaining…” Page 97-98 “What all of this means is that our culture…” Postman reflection: I reallyContinue reading “Blog Post 6”

Television profoundly changed our culture to one of immediate knowledge and immediate release, and this change has been so complete that it is now almost unnoticed. 2. Page 68-69 “You may get a sense of what this means…” Page 67 “As Thoreau implied…” I think these paragraphs do a very good job of summing upContinue reading “Blog Post 5”

Key Paragraphs Page 49 “This language is pure…” Page 46 “The Lincoln-Douglas audience…” Media Inventory a) Snapchat: app, phone, 1 hr/day Reddit: app, phone, 1 hr/day YouTube: app/website, 2 hr/day Messages: app, .5 hr/day Instagram: app, .35 hr/day TikTok: app, .75 hr/day Tinder: app, .1 hr/day b) Snapchat, Messages, and Tinder all serve the purposeContinue reading “Blog Post 4”

Postman’s third chapter, entitled “Typographic America”, dealt largely with summary of American history. Specifically, he focused on the nature of the printing press’s interactions with the developing culture of America before, during, and post revolution until the mid to late 1800s. This involved such analyses as examining the literacy rates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,Continue reading “Blog Post 3”

Postman begins, in chapter 2, to explain a bit of why he is so critical of television. Essentially, Postman’s view is that television is changing and cheapening the way our previously print-based society views and understands the truth. Stephanie Bennett takes a very similar position in her article when she argues for the necessity ofContinue reading “Blog Post 2”

I think that a candidate’s appearance holds much more sway over the average voter than their platform. The vast majority of voters merely go based off of name association: they are more familiar with a name and that name follows with their party, so they vote. Simple as that. People are a lot more likelyContinue reading “Blog Post 1”