NEIL POSTMAN WRITER - MEDIA THEORIST - PROVOCATEUR

Amusing Ourselves to Death The Disappearance of Childhood The Biases of Modern Media Neil Postman

 Writer, Media-Social Critic, Educational Theorist  Provocateur

 Forerunner in the field of Media Anthropology/Sociology (Jacques Ellul, Marshall McLuhan, )

 Established New York University’s Graduate Media Ecology Program

Postman's Central interests/focus:

1. The interactions between humans and their technologies

2. Paradigm shifts in human thought, culture, and media

3. How Our MEDIA & Our Technologies are REDEFINING HUMANITY

Author of over 20 Books + 200 Articles:  Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)  "Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection“ (1969)  Conscientious Objections (1988)  The Disappearance of Childhood (1982)  Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985)  Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992)  The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995) The Disappearance of Childhood How Media and Technology are RE-Defining Children, Youth, and Culture

• CENTRAL QUESTIONS: What is “CHILDHOOD?” Who gets to define it? How has it changed in the face of MODERN MEDIA and TECHNOLOGY?

• Our definition of "childhood" REALLY matters!... And it should matter to ALL of us.

 Incredibly important DEVELOPMENTAL phase in life • physical, psych, intellectual • will you become a DECENT HUMAN BEING?)  “Childhood” is a social construct/contract  Each generation redefines its boundaries and priorities  We need to have a more enlighted and sophisticated awareness of the INFLUENCERS  MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY have co-opted and TRANSFORMED CHILDHOOD MEDIA REDEFINITION of Childhood = How Media and Technology are RE-Defining Children, Youth, and Culture

• MEDIA INVASION of Childhood 1. EXPOSURE • Modern MEDIA (TV, Radio, News, Movies, Ads) are exposing (baraging) kids to problems, issues, conflicts WELL-BEYOND their abilities to deal with those issues

• The Entertained childOver-protected child • The TECHNO-centered child • The CHILD as GODSpoiled childEntitled/celebrity childSelf-centered child

2. SCHOOLS/LEARNING: • Replaced real learning with TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN entertainment • Education itself is being transformed into a branch of the entertainment industry • No coping skillsets to combat the exposure Media Technologies and Mental Health: The Over-communicated Society

• 2000-2019: MASSIVIE INCREASE in communication devices over the past decade • Cell phones, Texting, Facebook, email, Instagram, twitter, chat, blogs, online gaming, etc.

• Links to Mental and Physical Health? • Correlations (but not yet causal links) between heavy media use and the following: Stress Stress related cancers Anxiety Autism Depression Mental “brown outs” ADD and ADHD Chronic Distraction Diabetes Solutions? 1. Teaching as a SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY

• Challenge the status-quo in SCHOOL and at HOME!

• Do something different than conditioned consumer TECHNO in TEACHING/SCHOOLS

• Accentuate INTERDISCIPLINARY approaches and Multiple Intelligences

• Creativity, Imagination, NON-TECH AUTOMATONS

2. EXPERIENTIAL Education • (John Dewey) Learn by doing!

3. BIG PICTURE PERSPECTIVE (Global) • Merged with local co-present interpersonal environments

4. Interdisciplinary INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

5. MEDIA EDUCTION! (in 5 parts) • Theoretical Cross-cultural--> LARGER PERSPECTIVE • Technological ECOLOGY (holistic analysis of CURRENT ISSUES!) • Critical Evaluation of SELF, LOCAL, NATIONAL GLOBAL SOCIETY? • Creative Artistic Use/Development • STEP OUT OF THE FEEDBACK LOOP! Connections? You!?

Marshall McLuhan University of Toronto Neil Postman New York University

Yo Prof! NYUSMC ?! 