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Comment by nonrandomstring | Hacker News Reader

Nice riff on Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death". The focus is really on the danger of over-reliance on one faculty. But I suppose the same could be said for an aural-only world of radio and podcasts. I disagreed that video would be an edited "reality". Image is no more than the way the world looks as opposed to how it sounds or is described by text. Ultimately the ability to synthesise these faculties is what the phrase "common sense" really means. It isn't a stand-in for "bleedin obvious" or "what most (common) people think", it is that sense that emerges from an ability to create a world from sights, sounds, smells, tastes and also written words, so pf course I do agree that an over-reliance on any one mode of perception leads to minds that lack common sense.

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Somewhat ironic given I suspect Postman would disagree with the majority of this article. This article asserts that the amount of engagement with the written word has gone up dramatically; "Amusing Ourselves To Death" has an entire chapter dedicated to demonstrating how much more early Americans engaged with written work. Consumption of books per capita was far higher in the 18th century than it is today, the literacy rate for men in some of the colonies was ~92% (and for women 62%), the number of people who read Common Sense on a per head basis is roughly equivalent to the number of people who watch the Super Bowl today, etc.

The argument in "Amusing Ourselves to Death" is not that the written word enhances reality, it is that it engages critical faculties by forcing the reader to contend with the argument advanced by an author. This article suggests that the written word is a crutch for thought, and thereby diminishes our ability to get at reality. These ideas are not exactly opposed, but there is a certain discordance.

When Postman refers to written word he refers mainly to books. The article mentions the increase of hours spent reading text as a result of texting, social media etc. This form of written word is actually close to Postman's concerns.

It's written word, but its metaphor is the same as the metaphor of mediums like TV.

I agree in part. The texting, social media, etc. has the same disjointed tone as the "now, this" attitude of television that Postman wrote about. However, he had a specific concern with images versus text (whatever kind of text) -- namely, that they pass too quickly for people to dwell upon and can never advance an argument in the way that writing can.

To be honest, I think this is a general weakness in Postman's work. He talks a bit about the difference between pre and post-telegram writing, but he lionizes all 18th century writing despite there being tons of different forms (pamphlets, books, novels) that don't have the same intellectual value imo.

> This article suggests that the written word is a crutch for thought

I got that too. And yes, also ironic for the author (a writer of some kind) to be advancing a seemingly anti-literary agenda.

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