"They Say My Life is Like a Big Screen"

The distinction Postman makes in the closing paragraph is that people nowadays are laughing instead of thinking, and not realizing what they are laughing at or why they are no longer thinking. This distinction matters because with so much entertainment surrounding us, we are thinking less and less without even knowing it. Television provides people the ability to watch and be amused without having to think about what's even going on. There is no teaching or education in this, which is dumbing down the nation as a whole. And this lack of knowledge will eventually lead to disaster for our futures. His last paragraph basically sums up the whole message of his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

:X

My day of silence went pretty well, in my opinion. Due to the two snow days prior to Friday, I forgot about the silence until Elijah Majeski walked into my first hour with a white board. As soon as I remembered the assignment, my lips were sealed. At first it was a big struggle not to talk or write messages to anyone. It became easier with my white board though after first hour. As the day went on, the assignment became kind of fun to me. I liked trying to figure out what people were trying to say with their drawings. Katherine Sutherland seemed to like it too during third hour with me and Kendra Martin. At lunch it was pretty quiet, except for Matt Godlewski who failed and talked (to himself) the whole time. There were times, however, that I couldn't get someone to understand what I was trying to draw or charade. Just like how Postman says the medium is the message, people understood my point differently than I hoped. That became a bit frustrating. My favorite part of the day was 8th hour Spanish because us 7th hour APLanguagers were finally allowed to talk, while 1st hour still couldn't. :)

NEW MESSAGE FROM: Neil Postman

     In Neil Postman's novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he is making the point that technology is taking over our lives without us realizing it. We are becoming so accustomed to the use of it that the way we communicate with one another is changing for the worse. In chapter one, Postman states that America has gone from the Age of Typography and to the Age of Television, and this has shifted the content and meaning of public discourse. Similarly, in his interview he talks about how we use technology so much that we don't even realize that we're talking to machines. He says that people will find themselves talking to answering machines, even door knobs, and other items just as often as they talk to humans. People will eventually get so used to communicating this way that they'll forget how to have normal conversations. Each new era will be becoming less intelligent.

     Another point Neil Postman makes in his interview is that we are becoming "pets to computers." We are so obsessed with the media and being entertained that we don't even realize how it is controlling us. In his book, Postman talks about us amusing ourselves the death (being the title and all). For example, majority of teenagers are glued to their cell phones all day every day. People are unknowingly making technology such a necessity in our day to day lives that soon enough human cloning will be a normality to all of us.

Say What You Mean & Mean What You Say

1. Chavez' intent with the first 6 words of her column is that the words people choose to speak should be used wisely and respectively. Although people shouldn't change the message they are sending, they should be cautious of how they present it.

2. The word bellicose means favoring to start quarrels. Chavez used the word bellicose to describe metaphors made because in many cases, phrases that people have become accustomed to say are found offensive and can even lead to fighting. Slang terms and racial comparisons spark conflict between groups of people, and describing them as bellicose is very fitting.

3. Chavez is trying to persuade the reader into believing that all of the dispute over the words people use to express what they think is not because of the words themselves, but the tone of them and the context in which they are said. The best example to support her point in my opinion is in the quote, "Such rhetorical devices enrich our language and putting them off-limits would deprive us of the ability to express ourselves fully."

4. I agree, and I understand that it's important to think about what we say. But if we change how we say it, we can't fully get a point across.