Hall of Fame

Neil Postman (1913 - 2003)

New York University's Neil Postman has explored the impact of technology on culture and education. He is best known for his work on television as a cultural and educational force but has a much wider reach into the broader issues of teaching and schooling.

It would be fair to say that he warns us against the unthinking adoption of technology and schooling without purpose and values. His voice is a valuable antidote to the unthinking adoption of technology in learning. Electronic media may be all pervasive, this is not to say that they are all good for learning and cultural development.

Amusement is not learning
In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman warns us against mistaking the rhetoric of a broadcast medium for learning. Stripped of dialogue, the flow of film and television strips us of our ability to reflect, think, deduce and resolve issues. It stops us learning. However, his main argument is that teaching, as a form of dialogue, is being replaced by entertainment or amusement.

The Disappearance of Childhood
A central theme in his work is the effect of media on childhood. In The Disappearance of Childhood and Childhood: Can It Be Preserved, he identifies the creation of childhood with print and reading, certainly since the Renaissance. Television, he claims, blurs the adult/child distinction, making children behave like adults and adults like children. Schools, he states, along with the family, protect us from this unthinking adoption of technology. They preserve the values of childhood, rooted as they are in the culture of teaching, dialogue and print. This is not to say that schools are all good. Public schooling is simply the best we have come up with as a form of introduction to the adult world. In The End of Education he defines the role of schools as both dissemination of values and knowledge as well as the skills of reflection, critique and debate, but fears the effects of technology and sees the tangible evidence of decline.

Technopoly
His wider research into technology in culture is well represented by Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Technology is both good and bad. It becomes dangerous when we look to it for the authentification of our culture or allow it to determine our lives through the joy of consumption. He is a jealous guardian of the culture of print and reading and has grounded much of his theory in a defence of the language of dialogue against the language of technology and consumerism. It is through reading, he thinks, that our true educational development takes place.

Conclusion
We should not mistake Postman's critiques of television and other media as complete condemnation. He is not, as some claim, a simple reactionary. He is asking us to think deeply about the effects of technology on both learning and culture. Technology can both impress and oppress. He is careful to defend the traditional without being naively conservative.

Bibliography
Postman, Neil (1982). The Disappearance of Childhood. New York: Delacorte.
Postman, Neil (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York: Penguin.
Postman, Neil (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Knopf.
Postman, Neil (1997). The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf.