The Disappearance of Childhood | Neil Postman | disintegration of our society by modern media

The Disappearance of Childhood | Neil Postman | Postman is always original and thought-provoking.

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The Disappearance ...

	The Disappearance of Childhood Neil Postman Vintage/Random House, 1994 - 177 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

disintegration of our society by modern media

This book has punched more new ideas in it than all the other books I've read in the past few years together. This is what reading is all about. Childhood is a created category, by the mere fact of being a group separated from adults by the school system, a need necessitated by the invention of the press. He doesn't go into the psychological determinants that set children apart from adults, i.e. he doesn't define "childhood"...but mighty reading it is. The psychological influence of TV as opposed to reading strikes at my suspicion that TV is not a good thought catalyst, and the book confirms that the social sciences are way behind on in depth study of the real effects of the medium. The effects of the new media can not be proven, Postman says, but should be easier to compare the cognitive capabilities of kids, even whole families, that have grown up with as against without TV, than to compare identical twins for the many other characteristics, which the social sciences have done in such great detail. Yet there is no reference to any real detailed study material. Is it possibile there are no good scientific studies on the subject ???? Writing a book on assumptions is maybe easier. There is material here for a whole new chapter in the communication sciences. YOU HAVE TO READ IT BECAUSE YOU'LL NEVER WATCH THIS ON TV. The fact that I've never even come close to any such type of material sounds like a conspiracy of the electronic media, yet even the most avid book readers may never have thought so in depth about the mere reading activity's effects, it would make for an interesting clash of the media if each media would take on these issues more seriously. I've thrown out my TV, because you can't compare the intellectual and cognitive capacity of a kid that's grown up watching to one that's grown up reading and playing. Postman makes it convingly clear that reading is thinking in a way that TV can't be. Great news for Amazon.com. Neil seems to go a little too far in blaming almost all the evils of society on the media, indirectly of course through the disappearance of childhood, we get very high divorce rates, child criminality, crude language usage, lack of morality and religion, alienation, illiteracy, etc. Great thinking. Marc Van Gastel Taipei

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Postman is always original and thought-provoking.

Like virtually everything else I've read by Postman, this is a thoroughly original thesis, a well-laid out argument, and an extremely thoughtful critique. Plus, as important as all of the above, he writes well -- so what might seem turgid and polemic in another author's hands seems effortless and fun when Postman is at work -- and he doesn't carry on endlessly. He makes his point and moves on. Postman is that rare contemporary commentator who you can read start to finish in only a couple of sittings. "Amusing Ourselves to Death" is still my favorite Postman work, but this is a close second. Well worth your while.

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Wow! If Postman is correct, we should all be concerned!

Based upon Postman's description of childhood and the reason for its being, our society may be in jeopardy of losing this long-standing concept. Postman says that childhood came into existence about the time of the printing press; it arose out of a need to become a literate society in which adults controlled the information that children could access. Children had to learn to read so they could gain this information. Thus, schools were necessary. Furthermore, the adults' control of the information established a gap between adulthood and childhood. Adults could provide information to children when they deemed it was appropriate to do so. With the growth of electonic media and the move into the information age, adults have somewhat lost their control over the information; consequently, the gap between adulthood and childhood has been narrowed. Children are exposed to those"adult" ideas and thoughts sooner now because of their access to the information, i.e. consider today's television programs as just one example. Postman even contends that adults are more "child-like" in some ways; he give examples of the lack of distinction between clothing and language for adults and children. Perhaps a bit unfairly, Postman blames many of the less than positive changes in today's society on the media. However, this is a great read and provides a lot of "food for thought." The historical perspective that Postman provides on the "invention" of childhod is fascinating. His tracing of the developments growing out of the information age are logical and make a lot of sense. While he raises our concerns, Postman offers no real solutions to the problems.

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Docfungus1@Aol.Com

The first half of this book is a narrative on the history of childhood,which is slow and tedious, but the second half is much more insightful. In my opinion, this was not his best work but a good attempt.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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