{"id":2613,"date":"2022-11-25T14:43:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T22:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=2613"},"modified":"2022-11-25T14:43:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T22:43:30","slug":"still-amusing-ourselves-to-death-information-as-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2022\/11\/still-amusing-ourselves-to-death-information-as-cautionary-tale.html","title":{"rendered":"Still Amusing Ourselves to Death: Information as Cautionary Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It might seem like our current information glut is without parallel, but throughout history observers have worried about the impact of too much information on our ability to rationally process and make sense of it. When we moved from an oral storytelling culture to print with the invention of the printing press. Or with the invention of the telegraph, which allowed our thoughts to be transmitted across continents, for the first time exceeding the physical speed of a human body. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The ability to spread information changes the kinds of things we talk about, and therefore find important. And Neil Postman’s 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death<\/a>, is worth revisiting for his observations about the transition from the age of print to the age of television. He laments that in leaving the written argument behind, TV substitutes entertaining aphoristic messages for substantive evidence-based reason. Worse, TV gives the illusion of seeing and knowing more but being less powerful to act on any of it. Information as entertainment. Images as emotional triggers which don’t enlighten. He worries that as we distract ourselves and get addicted to being diverted, we lose the ability to determine what actually matters and forget we have the power to do anything about it. One suspects he would feel fully-vindicated in his cautions seeing the media universe of today in which we carry our phones everywhere in fear of allowing a single second to pass without distraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the take-home message here is a warning about the trap of feeling informed on a diet of information that does not matter and which we cannot do anything about. Were you outraged during the Trump years and spent hours every day following every little scandal and transgression? For what purpose? After, say, the first dozen or so outrages, did subsequent scandal change your opinion about the man? Did additional information shape new actions, new responses on your part that made a difference in either stopping him or changing the situation? You gave money, sure. You voted, sure. But think about the possibly thousands of hours you wasted in being outraged. And to what purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was Postman’s point. The “news” as reported on television was about things its viewers would be unable to impact, so why be informed about it? He concludes that it was for entertainment value, as a distraction from having to participate more fully in the world, yet behind an illusion of participating through knowing about it. One can imagine, in a way, this is how fame works. We know about something that others also know so we now feel an investment in and a kinship with our community in the know. This is how we create meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the current media universe which has flattened our hierarchies of information, information feeds become more and more deadening, and the sense of boredom that one feels consuming it is not from having nothing to do but being overwhelmed by choices that don’t seem to lead to anything nourishing. I wrote a bit more about Postman over on Post Alley<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It might seem like our current information glut is without parallel, but throughout history observers have worried about the impact of too much information on our ability to rationally process and make sense of it. When we moved from an oral storytelling culture to print with the invention of the printing press. Or with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cultural-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/christmas-g4a96c94a3_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C383&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-G9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/short_attention_span_theatre.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":0},"title":"Short Attention Span Theatre","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Ravenhill argues that endless choice has shortened our attention spans, to the detriment of all art.Maybe we should blame the invention of the TV remote control: people often do. At some point around 30 years ago, it became possible to hop aimlessly between channels. Programme-makers became convinced that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/voice_mail_-_another_innovatio.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":1},"title":"Voice Mail – Another Innovation Bites The Dust","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I gotta admit - sometimes it's days between times that I check my voice mail. I resent how cumbersome vm is. Way more cumbersome than texting or email. 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An inspiring comeback after medical calamity by one of America's best musicians. The Naked Trump: Five American cities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weekly AJ Top Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/jbareham_160818_1191_0077.0.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/jbareham_160818_1191_0077.0.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/jbareham_160818_1191_0077.0.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/jbareham_160818_1191_0077.0.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/jbareham_160818_1191_0077.0.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_arts_coverage_then_and_no.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":4},"title":"John: Arts Coverage Then and Now","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I agree with most everything you say in your last posting (to the annoyance of those, like editors, who value a good dust-up over reasoned dialogue). 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