Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business is a book by educator Neil Postman. The book's origins lay in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. He was participating in a panel on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the contemporary world.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals. "A brilliant, powerful, and important book.

 My notes

==[ Notable Assertions ]=======================================================|
 > "The image is underming other forms of communication, particularly the
   written word. Our bottomless appetite [for TV] will make content so
   abundantly available, context be damned, that we'll be overwhelmed by
   'information glut' until what is truly meaningful is lost, and we no longer
   care what we've lost so long as we were amused."
   # This is from the 2006 Introduction and not the original text, but it is
   # still striking, it extrapolates from the original text and predicts the
   # tik-tok brainrot iPad kids and the overall fucked attention spans of our
   # culture today.
 > Communities have been replaced by demographics, silenced by background noise.
 > TV News is inert. It gives us something to talk about but is designed to not
   lead to any meaningful action.
 > Huxleys vision: "People will come to love their oppression, to adore the
   technologies that undo their capacities to think."
 > Just how language effects the way we think, so too does the medium of our
   information. The TV watcher does not think like the TikToker does not think
   like the reader.
 > The critiques of TV are valid as critiques for TikTok and general addictively
   designed Social Media. The lack of reflection, the lack of depth context and
   nuance due to shortness. A world of fragments. Entertaining disinformation,
   not informative news.
 > Disinformation: Trivial bullshit to attract eyes or clicks. More harmful
   than misinformation. It's easier to refute information and spread truth than
   to get people to ignore disinformation.
 > The corporate state is a parasite on liberal democracy and its citizens, it
   corrupts, overrides, and kills the host. It then itself will die.

:: Questions ::
 > ?? Can society be convinced that all video media is just entertainment ??
 > ?? We are wired to embrace the next new thing, but how do we maintain
   control, dignity, and meaning ??
 > ?? Have any communities banned smartphones from the youth ??
   # Actually yeah, a few Irish towns for kids younger than 13.
 > ?? What are "civilizing influences" ??
   # Culturally tasteful architecture. Informative and objective news.
   # Religion. Education. An appreciation and cultural space for the arts.

:: Conclusions ::
 > Remove advertising from news and politics
 > Political advertisements should not be allowed, in print, signage, or TV.
 > The news should be designed to inform for the public good, it should not be
   allowed to generate profits, it should not have space for advertisements.