sorry i forgot who recommended this book. much thanks it was an excellent read.

the book put things in their proper perspective for me.

Rick, I've heard a bit about that book and know the basic premise, but nothing of the detail ...

How 'bout a review ?? ... some details from that perspective ...

the author aserts that as people, we are what we know and that what we know is what we have learned and are learning. this learning process is influenced primarily by how we learn. he is not refering to the people of this country only, but all people.

early man learned by listening to the elders, the story tellers, the shaman and of course these myths changed from story teller to story teller and evolved as stime went on. the reality of the story was lost in the telling.

when the printing press, with moveable type, was invented by gutenberg,in the early 1400's we learned by reading. myths were memorialized as reality. books written by current authors were in great demand in the usa during the 1700's and the 1800's. people read to learn and the literacy rate in the usa was about 85%. people went to lectures to hear the authors who spoke the words and ideas that they wrote.

the lincoln-douglas debates lasted for up to 4 hours, and people listened and didn't get bored, their attention span was long.

news took a long time to get because of the distances, but when the newspapers reached their destination, the news was detailed by words, that is until photography was invented and the words became less and the pictures became more. the pictures were soon found to be more interesting then the words and the entertainment value of the newspaper became more important then the facts and details.

the remainder of the book is an excellent perspective about how television, especially the news has become the vehicle through which we learn and consequently what we learn, and what we have become as people.

That sounds like it should be required reading. Humans are really at our core somewhat lazy. We will always take the path of least resistance. Most would rather see / touch / smell. Our ability to read, comprehend and come to an indpendent conclusion has been eroded. I will search for this book. Thanks.

Deriffe

try HALF.COM

Twas me. I KNEW you'd like it Rick. Postman's book forgets the power of the internet though. Here we still use critical thinking.

I have a copy if anyone is interested.

I forgot that once television was added to the equation that people's attention spans were lowered into "snippet thinking". This robbing of the mind goes unnoticed to many.

Typeset learning involved reading. Devoting time to reading the text. Most people will just wait for the movie. Learning was important to them. Instant gratification changed this platform. Television can play an important part in education, but it fails on so many levels that it will be replaced by the web. Even now Microsoft is trying to evolve the tv into the computing world.

If this kind of reading is appealing then I'd also recommend another book called "The Road Less Traveled". It's a perfect companion to Postman's book.

DrMaddVibe

first publication was 1985. i don't recall if there was aninternet then, but if there was, it was to early in it's development to make an impact.

more later

Actually Rick, the World Wide Web, which made the internet popular was developed in 1990 but became popular in 1993 when Mosaic, the first real browser, was created.

The actual internet has roots that go back to 1957. Here's a link that gives the timeline if you're interested.

http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/timeline.asp 

I'd like to get a copy of that book.
Does it have any pictures?

LMAO Tail!

There's no pictures but if you hum a few bars...you can fake it...

http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/amused.html 

Think they'll ever make a movie out of it?