Postman argues that television causes fragmented attention spans, and leads to a world of instant gratification and entertainment. He argues that entertainment is the main passageway of public discourse. His argument is still very much relevant till this date, and in my opinion, even more so than when he wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death due to the fact that social media is becoming increasingly popular, diminishing the mental health and clarity of millions of young adults and youth today by withering away their dopamine stores. Like Postman said, the television age is a new era from the age of typography. From the mere ages of three children start using iPads and such, which only feeds their entertainment and technology addiction. Postman’s cure for this illness he describes is known as “media consciousness,” where simply being inquisitive and conscious of one’s actions, in particular, how they relate to watching television and the epistemology (theory of knowledge) behind media and television, frees one from the “rat race” and allows one to actually think. Huxley wrote a novel, whereas Postman wrote a book length essay. Both of these formats are suitable for provoking the questions pertaining to a “Utopia” where entertainment can be found at the tip of one’s fingers, or in Postman’s case, the click of a button. Postman uses facts, evidence, and real world examples to get his point across, whereas Huxley uses imagery, allowing the reader to actually get a glimpse of the “New World” that we are entering.
Huxley’s vision somewhat describes the world we live in today, as the balance between freedom and stability is quite neutral, although technological advancements and increases in addictions in recent years are quite alarming. For example, thousands of cases of phone addictions in teens are the leading cause of depression worldwide. In my opinion, we are at a tipping point, where the “Brave New World” Huxley envisioned is on the Horizon. In Huxley’s world, the people have been brainwashed from a young age using the process known as hypnopaedia, where children are repetitively taught certain topics while sleeping, which helps them remember them. This is clearly different from how ideas are learned and how new knowledge is gained in our current world, where, our parents, teachers, and other institutions and religious groups instil a set of values upon us, and allow us to do the thinking. In other words, we acquire information from the world around us, and are allowed to interpret it in our own way, which gives us freedom, whereas in Huxley’s Brave New World, everybody has been given a set of values where it is irregular to go against the grain of society. In our world, people have a lot more respect for different opinions and such, but this is changing very rapidly, as if one goes too far, they will be cancelled for their claims. Examples of characters in Huxley’s novel that are abnormal are Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, Lenina Crowne, and John the Savage. These characters represent freedom from the restraints and conditioning of society. For example, in the novel, Helmholtz, John, and Bernard were offered to go to an island where they could do whatever they pleased. To avoid a future as seen in Brave New World, like Postman advocated, we must be conscientious of our actions and thoughts, and what effects they have on the rest of society and the world as a whole.