I decided to start the summer homework by reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. I figured it would be better to get the–what probably a lot of my piers would call–"boring" text out of the way. However, I'm realizing that as I get further into the book, it is becoming much more interesting because everything is beginning to "click."
In chapter seven, Postman focuses on a phrase commonly said on the news: "Now... This". It is a transition between stories that the newscasters use to essentially tell the viewers "Alright! Forget what I just told you because it has nothing to do with the next piece of news." Postman uses this point to further illustrate his thesis of how television, especially news, is purely amusing rather than professional.
I was chuckling to myself earlier today while I was on Snapchat. I'm sure most of you can recall the line of articles at the top of the "Stories" page. I was surprised to find an article/story called Now This. Better yet, it clearly demonstrated Postman's point. I initially tapped on the story to see if I could get any information on Britain splitting from the EU. The first snap talked about just that, so I tapped again to see if there was anything else on that topic. There wasn't. Instead, there was a different bit of news. Out of curiosity, I tapped again, only to find another completely different bit of news. By the end of the story (about ten more "taps" later), I forgot that I initially tapped on the article to see what was going on in Europe. I found this absolutely ironic.
If anyone is wondering how to do homework on the blog, this is how. Good on you, Nina, for 1. overcoming your uncertainty, and just putting something out there; 2. reading Postman first, and getting to chapter 7; 3. making this connection between Postman's work and Snapchat, and ESPECIALLY for being curious about Brexit. This is absolutely a historical moment -- a moment that will be referred to and talked about and pointed at for years -- maybe decades. We all need to read as much as we can, and to try to understand what is happening.
ReplyDeleteSnapchat is a perfect expression of the "Now...this" phenomenon -- important news offered without history, context or implication.
I wonder what Clay Shirky and Steven Johnson will have to say about how social media platforms change the way humans organize themselves and share information.
I have found that the same thing has happened to me too, only not on Snapchat because I don't have one. I can click on a news article that seems interesting to me only to have a paragraph or two of information. Then several other images with headlines catch my eye, and I soon click on those to find out more about them. Sooner or later, I find myself sitting on the computer for an hour knowing nothing about current issues, just of them. I soon realized that this is what Postman has pointed out in chapter 7 when he said, ". . . under the influence of television, increasingly decontextualized and discontinuous, so that the possibility of anyone's knowing about the world, as against merely knowing of it, is effectively blocked," (113).
ReplyDeleteIsn't it crazy how reading a little piece of information can get you so pumped up? I have read articles in my life that has given me joy. Sometimes if an article I read is boring, I now know little more than I used to. Also, I do find my self clicking on other headlines to read because it is just fascinating, whether it's from world news, art, music, etc.
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