8: Get Off the Cocaine Pellet Dispenser: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

For some people, yes, computers are necessary and valuable, but for a lot of other people, they are simply accelerating and enabling this useless information consumption.

In this episode, we cover how the Internet, social media, television, and technology is ruining our abilities to think, reason, entertain ourselves, and what to do about it. Amusing Ourselves to Death is one of both of our favorite books, and it was fun to see how much it related to the other topics we’ve been covering.

We covered a wide range of topics, including:

• How various forms of information affect our perception
• The prevalence of fake news now
• People concerned about others more than themselves
• Technology negatively affecting our attention spans
• The psychological aspects of the media and commercials
• Minimizing technological distractions
• How technology has changed our conversations

Enjoy! If you want more on Amusing Ourselves to Death, be sure to check out Nat’s notes on the book and to pick up a copy yourself!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to listen to our episode on The Sovereign Individual, to better prepare yourself for the cyber-economic future, and to our episode on In Praise of Idleness, to reduce the guilt to work so much and to improve your leisure time.

Mentioned in the show:

• Orwell’s essays [2:37]
• USA Today [12:50]
• Buzzfeed [13:05]
• Business Insider [13:10]
• Lincoln and Douglas debates [17:09]
• Pulp Fiction [21:10]
• Nat’s article on most popular internet sites [28:20]
• Alexa [28:22]
• Nat’s 5-day water fast article [30:45]
• Nat’s article on Buzzfeed vs WSJ [33:46]
• Neil’s website [33:13]
• Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine [40:59]
• The Daily Show [1:02:24]
• The Colbert Report [1:02:25]
• Jon Stewart interview fake news [1:05:05]
• Jon Stewart interview on Crossfire [1:05:37]
• Crossfire show [1:05:37]
• Free speech issue on campuses article [1:06:59]
• Trump’s policies [1