Neil Postman was an humanistic author, critic, and media theorist during his seventy two years of life. He was a very inteligent man as he had a Ed. D and a Master's degree both from the Teachers College of Columbia. Postman wrote 18 books along with over 200 articles. He also edited The Nation during his career. In 1983 he was appointed a University Professor for the School of Education; something that no other person had achieved at that time.
Among his many works is a book titles Amusing Ourselves to Death; a historical narrative which warns us of the decline in the ability of our news networks and mass media outlets to share serious ideas. In this bookhe argues that different media is appropriate for different types of information; a valid point but also very broad. He expresses his concern that we are pitfalling from the "pinacle of rational argument", he states, where we were a scant two hundred years ago during the Age of Reason.
Neil Postman was a very interesting theorist and had more of a conventional side to him that most people do not have today. He seemed very against the use of technology in educatoin because he strongly believed in children learning together in a cohesive group rather than on a few personal computers isolated from one another.
I found this quote to be rather interesting -
"Television is altering the meaning of "being informed" by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing."
