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Neil Postman
Neil Postman
Born March 8, 1931 New York City October 5, 2003 (aged72) New York City
Died
Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 October 5, 2003) was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University. Postman was a humanist, who believed that "new technology can never substitute for human values." [1]
Biography
Postman was born and spent most of his life in New York City. In 1953, he graduated from State University of New York at Fredonia where he played basketball. He received a master's degree in 1955 and an Ed.D in 1958, both from the Teachers College, Columbia University, and started teaching at New York University (NYU) in 1959. In 1971, he founded a graduate program in media ecology at the Steinhardt School of Education originally known as SEHNAP, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions, of NYU. In 1993 he was appointed a University Professor, the only one in the School of Education, and was chairman of the Department of Culture and Communication until 2002. Among his students were authors Paul Levinson, Joshua Meyrowitz, Jay Rosen, Lance Strate, and Dennis Smith. He died of lung cancer in Flushing, Queens on October 5, 2003.[2]
Works
Postman wrote 18 books and more than 200 magazine and newspaper articles for such periodicals as The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Time Magazine, The Saturday Review, The Harvard Education Review, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Stern, and Le Monde. He was the editor of the quarterly journal ETC.; A review of General Semantics (founded by S.I. Hayakawa in 1943) from 1976 to 1986. He was also on the editorial board of The Nation.
Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death was translated into eight languages and sold 200,000 copies worldwide.
Technopoly
In his 1992 book Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology, Postman defines Technopoly as a society which believes the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment ... and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts. [4] Postman argues that the United States is the only country to have developed into a technopoly. He claims that the U.S has been inundated with technophiles who do not see the downside of technology. This is dangerous because technophiles want more technology and thus more information.[5] However, according to Postman, it is impossible for a technological innovation to have only a one-sided effect. With the ever-increasing amount of information available Postman argues that: Information has become a form of garbage, not only incapable of answering the most fundamental human questions but barely useful in providing coherent direction to the solution of even mundane problems.[6] In a 1996 interview, Postman re-emphasized his solution for technopoly, which was to give students an education in the history, social effects and psychological biases of technology, so they may become adults who use technology rather than being used by it.[1] Postman has been criticized by being called a Luddite, despite his statement in the conclusion of Amusing Ourselves to Death that "We must not delude ourselves with preposterous notions such as the straight Luddite position."[7]
Neil Postman
Neil Postman have been replaced by organized sports (Little League, Pee Wee, etc.) which are more like adult sports. "Adulthood has lost much of its authority and aura, and the idea of deference to one who is older has become ridiculous" (p. 133). He makes a point that civilized behavior acknowledges our animal urges (sex, violence, etc.) but makes them secrets that are kept hidden from children. Since they are no longer secrets, our society may become more barbarian. A case in point is foul language, which is no longer kept hidden from children, and has become more predominant everywhere. While positing his theory, Postman offers no solution for society on the whole. Even as he wrote in times before before the widespread availability of the Internet, he acknowledged that there is probably no turning back from our visual, electronic age. Thus, he writes Resistance entails conceiving of parenting as an act of rebellion against American culture (p. 152).
On Education
In 1969 and 1970 Postman collaborated with New Rochelle educator Alan Shapiro on the development of a model school based on the principles expressed in Teaching as a Subversive Activity. The result was the "Program for Inquiry, Involvement, and Independent Study" within New Rochelle High School.[8] This "open school" experiment survived for 15 years. In subsequent years many programs following these principles were developed in American high schools, current survivors include the Village School[9] in Great Neck, New York. In a television interview conducted in 1995 on the MacNeil/Lehrer Hour Postman spoke about his opposition to the use of personal computers in schools. He felt that school was a place to learn together as a cohesive group and that it should not be used for individualized learning. Postman also worried that the personalized computer was going to take away from individuals socializing as citizens and human beings.[10]
Quotations
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.[11] I don't think any of us can do much about the rapid growth of new technology. However, it is possible for us to learn how to control our own uses of technology. The "forum" that I think is best suited for this is our educational system. If students get a sound education in the history, social effects and psychological biases of technology, they may grow to be adults who use technology rather than be used by it.[1] Anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided. The invention of the printing press is an excellent example. Printing fostered the modern idea of individuality but it destroyed the medieval sense of community and social integration. Printing created prose but made poetry into an exotic and elitist form of expression. Printing made modern science possible but transformed religious sensibility into an exercise in superstition. Printing assisted in the growth of the nation-state but, in so doing, made patriotism into a sordid if not a murderous emotion.[12] A new technology tends to favor some groups of people and harms other groups. School teachers, for example, will, in the long run, probably be made obsolete by television, as blacksmiths were made obsolete by the automobile, as balladeers were made obsolete by the printing press. Technological change, in other words, always results in winners and losers.[13] Television is altering the meaning of "being informed" by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.[10]
Neil Postman What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.[10] A definition is the starting point of a dispute, not the settlement.[14] When I hear people talk about the information super highway, it will become possible to shop at home, and bank at home, and get your texts at home, and get your entertainment at home, so I often wonder if this doesn't signify the end of any community life.[10] In reference to the overload of information since the 1800s Postman speaks about overcoming the limitations of time, space and form. Information has become full of Information junkies, Information glut and Information meaningless. [10]
Selected bibliography
Television and the Teaching of English (1961). Linguistics: A Revolution in Teaching with Charles Weingartner (Dell Publishing, 1966). Teaching as a Subversive Activity with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1969) "Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection" - speech given at National Convention for the Teachers of English (1969)[15] The Soft Revolution: A Student Handbook For Turning Schools Around with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1971). The School Book: For People Who Want to Know What All the Hollering is About with Charles Weingartner (Delacorte Press, 1973). Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: How We Defeat Ourselves By the Way We Talk and What to Do About It (1976). Postman's introduction to General Semantics. Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979). The Disappearance of Childhood (1982). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985). Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education (1988). How to Watch TV News, with Steve Powers (1992). Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992). The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995). Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future (1999). MacNeil, R. (Writer/Host).Visions of Cyberspace: With Charlene Hunter Gault (1995, July 25). Arlington, VA: MacNeil/Lerner Productions.
Neil Postman
References
[1] PBS Newshour Interview, 1996 (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ newshour/ forum/ january96/ postman_1-17. html) [2] New York Times Obituary: Neil Postman, October 9, 2003 (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2003/ 10/ 09/ obituaries/ 09POST. html?ex=1381032000& en=b8599f343b896c35& ei=5007& partner=USERLAND) [3] http:/ / www. mat. upm. es/ ~jcm/ postman-informing. html [4] (Postman, 1992. p.51) [5] Howard P. Segal, "Review", The Journal of American History, vol.79, no.4 (March 1993), p.1695-1697 [6] Neil Postman, Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology, (1992), p.69 [7] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, (1985) [8] http:/ / www. joshkarpf. com/ 3i/ proposal1970. html [9] Hu, Winnie (November 12, 2007). "Profile Rises at School Where Going Against the Grain Is the Norm" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2007/ 11/ 12/ education/ 12village. html). The New York Times. . Retrieved April 6, 2010. [10] From interview from PBS on MacNeil/Lehrer Hour (1995). [11] from The Disappearance of Childhood [12] Talk given at the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft fuer Informatik) on October 11, 1990 in Stuttgart. (http:/ / www. mat. upm. es/ ~jcm/ postman-informing. html) [13] "Informing Ourselves to Death" (1990) (http:/ / www. mat. upm. es/ ~jcm/ postman-informing. html) [14] "Language Education in a Knowledge Context", 32. [15] In this speech (http:/ / criticalsnips. wordpress. com/ 2007/ 07/ 22/ neil-postman-bullshit-and-the-art-of-crap-detection/ ), Postman encouraged teachers to help their students "distinguish useful talk from bullshit". He argued that it was the most important skill students could learn, and that teaching it would help students understand their own values and beliefs.
External links
The Neil Postman Information Page (http://www.neilpostman.org/) Neil Postman: Collected Online Articles (http://www.bigbrother.net/~mugwump/Postman) Neil Postman Writing on the Web (http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Postman.html) Neil Postman, Defender of The Word (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6405/is_4_60/ai_n29057520/) by Lance Strate Many Neil Postman Quotes (http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/category/quotes/?s=neil+postman) Discussion on Technology (http://www.scottlondon.com/insight/clips/postman.mp3) with Scott London (MP3) The Media Ecology Association (http://www.media-ecology.org/) Comparative Postman: 1985-2010 (http://www.culturalfarming.com/Ethnography/Neil_Postman.html), 30min. media compilation illustrating the critical merits of technological determinism 25 years later - by Cultural Farming.
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/