Alycia Bardon
Neil Postman and Communication Through TikTok
When Neil Postman first wrote his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, in 1985 he based
his theory primarily on the invention of television. Postman highlighted the negative effects that
television would have on public communication and how speech will be recreated by every
medium of communication. Postman believed that our media, such as its politics, religion,
athletics, education, and commerce, have turned into show business which ultimately become a
form of amusement. The underlining idea is that people will no longer talk to each other, but
instead be entertained. If messages are then made for pure entertainment, then it “alters the
meaning of being informed by creating misleading information; misplaced, irrelevant,
fragmented or superficial informant that creates the illusion of knowing something” (Silvestre).
With the invention of television came the format of short videos and Postman felt that this did
not offer enough time to cover an entire story. In Postman’s book, he also points out the level of
irrelevance that occurs when so much information is being shared across various platforms in
fragmented segments. Despite Postman presenting his ideas and theories in the 1980s, much of it
can be very easily applied to our media usage today including our much-loved social media
platform, TikTok.
The rise of television also caused a rise of entertaining and Postman, like the title of his book, claimed that “we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death” (Postman, 4).
People tend to be drawn to those who have a talent and a format to amuse in our media. Our messages and media soon valued cosmetics over ideology. The main purpose of television became entertaining its audience in short segments, giving the eyes of the consumer something new to see every few seconds. As stated in the article by Dan Silvestre titled, “Lessons from
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman”, “We do not argue with propositions but with good looks, celebrities, and commercials” (Silvestre). It is because of television that we now exchange images instead of exchanging ideas (Silvestre). Instead of challenging this notion, we extended this trend further by introducing these concepts to social media platforms such as
TikTok.
Over the course of 2020, TikTok rose in popularity, most likely as a form of distraction as much larger issues played out. The article titled “What is TikTok? Why Is It So Popular?”, writes that “When it comes to TikTok, there is a vast market of people looking for micro-entertainment and distraction for a few minutes during the day” (Daniel). Currently, the social media platform has more than five hundred million active monthly users spending an average of an hour a day on the app (Marsh). The app allows its users to record or upload videos that are fifteen to sixty seconds long; a format that Postman most dreaded. According to the article, “How TikTok, A
New Video-Sharing Platform, Is Changing the Way We Communicate”, “Users can create their own original audio-talk to the camera, chronicle an amusing situation, perform skits-…”
(Marsh). The platform consists of a hodgepodge of dances, skits, memes, jokes, life hacks, and informational posts. In a sense, it fits under Postman’s idea of emotional gratification; it’s short clips, continuously offering new videos for its users to watch, and requires little skills to understand.
TikTok’s format of short video clips is something that Postman brought up in his theory about television. This format controls how the user interacts with the app, or the medium, to share their message. Our messages are recreated by each medium of communication, a version of the quote “the medium is the message,” by Marshall McLuhan. As stated by Silvestre, “Although culture is a creation of speech, it is recreated anew by every medium of communication. Each
medium creates a unique mode of communication by providing a new orientation for thought, for
expression, for sensibility. Communication on television is largely done in images, not words.
The medium is the message” (Silvestre). With the development of TikTok, a new way to
communicate was introduced and users had to fit their content or their message to fit its mold.
The messages being shared on the app are ideally made for entertainment, regardless of the
context.
Many users have posted informational messages on the increasingly popular platform
about the current state of the world such as health advice and updates on the coronavirus. One
must question if this gets watered down by the limitations on the platform or misunderstood on a
platform that is made for entertainment. Postman feared irrelevance when so much information
gets shared across many formats in fragmented segments. It brings up the concern that our
information loses its meaning when being shared on social media platforms, especially when
their design limits how the user puts out a message. There is a risk of irreverence, especially as
those wanting to share a message must do so per its requirement; short fragmented, everchanging
clips from various creators that, after being seen once might get lost in all the noise.
With the introduction of television and its amusement format, many Americans turned to
shows like Saturday Night Live and other late-night comedy shows to get their news (Garber).
The idea of presenting the news in a comedic style has been carried over to social media
platforms, like TikTok. Lately, the current way to communicate this comedic style on social media is through memes and skits. Best stated in the National Post article titled “How TikTok, A
New Video-Sharing Platform, Is Changing the Way We Communicate”, “…these kids were dealing with the mess of current affairs better than most mainstream news pundits and doing it in a vernacular that feels entirely sui generis” (Marsh). On the surface, TikTok can very easily be defined by Postman’s theory of media but underneath is a culture and a generation that is using
TikTok to understand their world and its ongoing issues, despite its entertainment format. They are using this entertainment format to their advantage to spread a message in the language that is most familiar to them.
Postman did not agree with the idea of using entertainment to present information; to him, there was no possibility that real news could be communicated and received through show business. But for a generation such as Gen Z’ers that have grown up with this as their reality, they are able to use this format of communication to connect and to relate to each other best. It has been discussed that “While entertainment seems to be the main draw at the moment, there is an increase in both education, aspiration, and business-oriented content (Daniel). TikTok has helped teens better connect and communicate with each other during the pandemic, especially as they have been isolated during lock-down restrictions. It also helped to bring people together, such as college age students “with memes about coping during the coronavirus pandemic”
(Paul). Calum Marsh writes that, “politically engaged, technologically savvy, and very, very, funny, these kids are dealing with the mess of the current affairs better than most mainstream news pundits” (Marsh). The use of memes and skits is how the younger generations have learned to connect with those around them while understanding and navigating their world.
We can expand on this further by bringing up the Mercy core value of compassion. For many, TikTok was a way to interact with each other while being physically apart. It brought together a community of likeminded people who are sharing a common moment in time. Many college students made videos to express their feelings as school became virtual and study aboard programs were canceled. People have also communicated by posting tips on staying healthy, challenges that would keep you busy, and viral dances to learn. With the negative state of the world, “No platform has managed to engage, uplift, and win over the masses quite like TikTok”
(Jeffries).
Postman’s theory of media is very relevant to today, especially with the current usage on social media platforms. With all the information being shared in short, fragmented segments across numerous platforms, we still face the problem of irrelevance in our messages; a problem that Postman had theorized with the invention of television. While Television spurred a continuous trend of visual based communication in the form of short clips, we learned to adapt to this form of communication and create a new language out of it. The time we spent apart in quarantine, allowed us to use and understand media in a whole different way. It brought together communities of people by offering a way to still be together despite being apart. It was a way to access the outside world and a world out of our quarantine bubbles. There is a generation born using this language as their form of communication and connected with each other using memes and skits. This is their way of being aware of the world and grasping all its concepts, especially during a global pandemic. Despite the challenges faced with communication through media, there seems to be a breakthrough on TikTok as we searched for human connection while quarantined. Postman worried that we would be so distracted and so amused by our media and all the information shared that we wouldn’t grasp the news of the outside world but instead we are using this level of amusement to make sense of it all.
Works Cited
Daniel. “What Is Tik Tok Used For, and Why Is It So Popular?” Brandastic, Aug. 6, 2020, www.brandastic.com/blog/what-is-tiktok-and-why-is-it-so-popular/.
Garber, Megan. “Are We Having Too Much Fun?” The Atlantic, Apr. 28, 2017, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/are-we-having-too-much- fun/523143/.
Jeffries, Ben. “How TikTok Thrived During Coronavirus and Will It Last?” The Drum, May 28, 2020, www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/05/27/how-tiktok-thrived-during-coronavirus-and- will-it-last.
Marsh, Calum. “How TikTok, a New Video-Sharing Platform, Is Changing the Way We Communicate.” National Post, Jan. 17, 2020, www.nationalpost.com/entertainment/how- tiktok-a-new-video-sharing-platform-is-changing-the-way-we-communicate.
Paul, Kari. “'It's Corona Time': TikTok Helps Teens Cope with the Coronavirus Pandemic.” The Guardian, Mar. 12, 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/coronavirus- outbreak-tik-tok-memes.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Silvestre, Dan. “Lessons from Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.” Medium, Sept. 11, 2018, www.medium.com/@dsilvestre/lessons-from-amusing-ourselves-to-death-by- neil-postman-962221ee622.