Viewpoint: Reflections on Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” (1985) in the context of today’s digital social media platforms

• Published in: Journal of applied economics and business research 2022, Vol.12 (2), p.71
• Main Authors: Okwir, Simon, Nuur, Cali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: disinformation; fake news; Postman; social media; word -centered to image -centered
• ISSN: 1927-033X; 1927-033X

Recently, fingers have been pointed towards the impacts of social media platforms' algorithms. Although billed as transformative and democratic, most social media platforms are often in the headlines for disseminating "conspiracy theories " and "fake news ". However, the debate on new technology is not new. This viewpoint puts the current debate on social platforms in the context of the historical debate. In it, we firstly provide a comprehensive review of a seminal book by Neil Postman (1985), Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Although published decades ago before the introduction of today's social media platforms, the book is today a topic du jour. Secondly, we put the analysis from the review in the context of today's social media proliferations. The originality of this review is that it describes the impact of consuming technology without questioning it and that what we are witnessing is a shift from word-centered typography to image-centered social media. Postman calls this era "the age of exposition ", which gradually intoxicates academia and political discourses, thereby losing seriousness, clarity and value within public discourse.