The Death of Thought

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is one of the most intriguing books I have read in a while. Postman argues that the death of meaningful thought began with the inventions of the telegraph and the television. By drawing contrasts between the word-centered culture of the past and the image-centered culture of the present, he reveals the degradation of the human thought process as perpetual entertainment replaced useful knowledge. This insightful book was written in 1985, long before personal computers, smart phones, and social media platforms were even figments of the imagination. I believe his words of wisdom and warning are even more relevant today with so many additional forms of entertainment vying for our attention.

Prior to Samuel Morse's revolutionary invention of the telegraph in the mid-1800s, people were exposed primarily to information that was relevant to their local community. Community members were expected to be well-versed in the local politics and news so that they could take meaningful action. Postman refers to this relationship as the "information-action ratio." Almost everyone was literate and well-educated in reason and communication. To read was to comprehend, to comprehend was to think, and to think was to act.

When the telegraph was invented, people on the East Coast were all of a sudden connected to people on the West Coast. News and information constantly crossed the country and, according to Postman, introduced "large scale irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence." The information-action ratio changed. For the first time, people "were sent information which answered no question [they] had asked, and which, in any case, did not permit the right of reply." The telegraph, followed by the television a few decades later caused a "transformation of news from functional information to decontextualized fact." Sound familiar?

Technological advancements are certainly not negative in and of themselves. I am very thankful for the ease in which I can stay connected with my family and friends. I can take photos of my children with my phone and send them instantaneously to their grandparents who live several hours away. I can FaceTime with my nephew. I can have a Zoom meeting with my Sunday School class during a pandemic. All of these things are good. The problem occurs when we allow our televisions, computers, and phones to occupy all of our time as they jump from one bit of information to the next without ever allowing us to process the information we have been given. We should mourn the loss of meaningful thought in our world. When we fill our minds with decontextualized information in the form of short news segments, memes, and tweets, we are not thinking. We are simply being entertained.

When we fill our minds with decontextualized information in the form of short news segments, memes, and tweets, we are not thinking. We are simply being entertained.

So how to do we recover meaningful thought? It is certainly a discipline. We must train ourselves to slow down and to think. I am a huge advocate of classical education, which takes a pupil through the stages of the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Through this model, one learns first to gather information, then to understand the meaning and depth of the information, and finally to communicate one's conclusion about the information. Sadly, our culture prefers giving and hearing opinions without going through the first two steps of gathering and analyzing the information properly. We will recover meaningful thought when we learn the art of exposition. Postman defines exposition as "a sophisticated ability to think conceptually, deductively and sequentially; a high valuation of reason and order; an abhorrence of contradiction; a large capacity for detachment and objectivity; and a tolerance for delayed response." Exposition of Scripture may rightfully come to your mind when you hear this term. Expository preaching involves going through a book of the Bible verse-by-verse in order to understand the true meaning and context of a passage. I believe it is the most faithful way to study Scripture, and I think this method should be used across all disciplines. We must learn to contextualize what we see, hear, and read so that we can process it meaningfully. Then, and only then, should we have the right to broadcast our thoughts or take action. Otherwise, we are part of the entertainment circus looking for applause instead of reflection.

I will leave you with these words from Amusing Ourselves to Death: "It is a world without much coherence or sense; a world that does not ask us, indeed, does not permit us to do anything; a world that is, like the child’s game of peek-a-boo, entirely self contained. But like peek-a-boo, it is also endlessly entertaining. Of course, there is nothing wrong with playing peek-a-boo. And there is nothing wrong with entertainment. As some psychiatrist once put it, we all build castles in the air. The problems come when we try to live in them."

(Illustration by Sofie Moustahfid)