Amusing Ourselves to Death

'We aren’t primarily ruled by politicians, theologians or the military. We’re ruled by technology . . . Postman's warnings about how technology shapes us are as relevant as they ever were.' THE TIMES

What happens when media and politics become just another form of entertainment?

First published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the effects of television on our politics and public discourse has become a modern classic. With the rise of the infinite scroll, collapsing attention spans, dwindling literacy rates and the outsourcing of our cognitive abilities to AI, his ideas seem more prescient than ever.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands to what we now call the attention economy. With a brand-new foreword written by Jonathan Haidt, it is the definitive examination of how we are abandoning our ability to reason in the name of entertainment.

'A prophet of the new information era . . . When you read this book, you have to keep reminding yourself that he’s talking about television and Reagan, not the internet and Trump' OBSERVER

'The world is choking on screens. Just as this book foretold.' WASHINGTON POST