Postman's Speech

     Throughout Postman's interview with Calvin and his novel Amusing Ourselves To Death he discusses the ideas of people becoming "pets to technology" and people only being concerned about outward appearance.  In the interview he discusses people acting towards technology as pets act towards their owners.  He is saying that people are relying on technology without even realizing it.  In the novel he discusses this same idea when he talks about people constantly checking the television or their cell phones.  People do this all the time without paying attention to the actual idea of it.  An example would be if someone has their cell phone in their pocket or purse and they keep on thinking that their feel the vibrate on the phone go off and they are constantly checking to make sure they don't miss anything.  If people actually payed close attention to their pets they would realize that they would be lost without their owners and would die.  Well, that same idea is starting to apply to people with their technology when they are constantly relying on it.  People are becoming so addicted that they could not make it without being able to watch television or check Facebook or text messaging; people would go through withdrawals.

     Another main point was when Postman discussed people only being concerned about outward appearance.  In his novel he talks about the idea of newscasters not hiring people if they didn't have "the look."  That if people were not pretty enough or overweight they could not make it in the news business.  He talks about people only caring about how they look and they are starting to only worry about themselves.  In the interview he talks about the idea of cloning.  If people were able to create a clone then they would just rely on the clone and use it just in case they needed it at any time or if they were sick.  This just helps back up the idea that people are becoming too immersed in themselves and their appearance.  It is becoming acceptable in our society to not be accepted because of your looks, and that is wrong on several levels.