In this chapter, Postman attacks modern society’s lack of comprehension pertaining to complex arguments and word choice. In addition, he points out how the contemporary attention span is shrinking which he attributes to the “Age of Show Business”. Postman expands on his appeal of significant loss of intelligence by comparing the Lincoln Douglas debates which were characterized by intricate rational arguments to modern political debates in which politicians are hesitant to use calculated high level word choice. Postman notes that this is a consequence of television culture. Essentially, he says that television has dulled our level of comprehension and attention span.
I believe postman makes a valid argument in this chapter. It is clear that in the past complex arguments and diction were used more frequently and understood by the public. Nowadays, people mostly rely on one line headlines to gain knowledge of an event. It is a shame to think society is gradually getting unintelligent, yet it is a tradeoff of our modern media landscape. It is critical to the progress of humanity that we reverse this phenomenon.
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