Amusing Ourselves to Death : Public Disc

A good read, but only for serious readers. Not for beginners.

This book is a must read for both students and teacher, at all levels, just to know what we have left behind and at what cost, and in exchange of what.

This book was first published in 1985. Through this book author wants to create awareness around media consumption and it’s impact in moulding our culture. In today’s time when there is so much information to consume, we should focus on choosing substantial content over entertainment and this book is all about this.

I hardly read much but this was a brilliant read. I’ve purchased a kindle version for myself and two prints as gifts for friends. A brilliant read showing how images and news is without context. The quote by CNN in this items description is ironical. They’re oblivious to the fact that 24hr news channels like CNN is what this book warns against.

my first advice if you are a novice reader skip part 1 and complete part 2 of the book....after that read part1. this book is filled with funny yet serious knowledge about television..or for that matter youtube videos and channels that provide news,education,religion as entertainment...the bottom line is political discourse(discussion), education religion all depend on"language"..tv is totally "visual imagery" only good for entertainment...

A must read book. The book was written in 80s while its content is ahead of its time. One can easily relate it with current television scenario.

This is an amazing book, perfect for the problems of our social media age. Well packed and bound too.

It was more philosophical than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. I have been hoping for years to have the chance to read this book.

Recomendo muito bom

Even though it was written many years ago, this book is a must read for anyone qho want to understand our society today. The same goes for Aldous Huxley "A brave New World". Two masterpieces.

The rise of the printing press and the high quality education society got from all the great books written has now been replaced by photos, images, pictures and video. We now live today in a society of potato heads that don't read and stare at their TV screens all day long...how do they do it? They do it via the cellphone by watching hundreds of hours of time wasting dystopia which was created by people that we don't even know and we'll probably never meet. We turn on the TV and amuse ourselves to death. I haven't had a TV or cellphone for 20+ years and I have read more books, gone on more walks and more important, I'm happier for it. This book is a grand slam home run. One of the greatest authors of our era. Sensational and common sense based book about the dangers and hazards of TV on society. I'm going to see what else Mr Neil Postman has written for sure. I'm going to get all of his great works...one amazing book at a time. Sometimes I was on the Toronto subway and would read small pieces to complete strangers and they would smile, get out their cell phones, snap a photo of the book and say "yeah, I'm getting this on Amazon Canada". The most shocking information I've ever been exposed to in my life. I had great joy and laughter as I read about the surreal nature of what is transpiring. I love books so much.

Highly recommended

Essays that are a few decades old can sometime fall into irrelevance, this is not the case here. A lot of the issues raised in this book from the golden age of television are still valid today in the age of social networks.