IN 1985, author and cultural critic Neil Postman wrote “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, a book critiquing America’s television society. Thirty years later, I’m reading excerpts from his work and I wonder if Postman would be rolling over in his grave and shouting, “I told you so”.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that social media has invaded our lives.
For many millennial’s out there, the day starts and ends with frantic finger swiping on a screen. Snapchat and Instagram have created for free what the best television networks spend millions on: a platform for 24/7 self-produced reality shows. For Postman, this is an intellectual nightmare as the premise of his book asserts that image-based communication technology has led to an addiction to entertainment which has reduced people’s interest in digesting meaningful content.
Being constantly connected inherently means being constantly watched. This is not a conspiracy theory of some sort but a simple reality. When the US National Security Agency (NSA) confirms that it has been spying on millions of civilians locally and abroad including powerful figures like Angela Merkel, it would be very naïve of us to assume that the same thing cannot be happening at home. However, although the monitoring of content is one aspect of technology that is important, it is not worth worrying about here since it is outside of our control. What is more troublesome – at least to Postman - is the idea borrowed from Aldous Huxley’s novel, “Brave New World”, where the greatest tragedy lies in our worship of technology so that “what we love will ruin us”.
For example, some say a selfie can boost their self-esteem. Some might even call it empowering, but to what extent does a person want to get in the habit of relying on their most superficial traits as a monumental factor in their feeling of self-worth? Worst of all are the fakers. People who get in the habit of pretending to have a good time and making sure that they record it, rather than actually living in and for the moment. This kind of constant impression management can be dangerous when the expectations of other people become more valuable to us than our own. But the fact that we form our identity based on the impression we get from others is not new to human psychology. The risk for young adults is that social media heightens the opinions of others to above normal thresholds. For Postman, this hyper concern over the trivial instead of the substantial is precisely where the cultural downfall lies.
To be clear, I enjoy social media just as much as the average 20-something year old does and I understand the immense potential of employing these tools professionally. I also see the risk of selfie sessions, four-hour cat video marathons, and more. Although I understand the sentiment of people who chose to opt-out, I’m not advocating a panicked approach to technology where the only solution is isolation. Instead I’m reiterating Postman’s stance: “If students get a sound education in the history, social effects, and psychological biases of technology, they may grow to be adults who use technology rather than be used by it”
In sum, have fun but use social media with caution.
Sana Fatani,
Toronto, Canada
