Postman Opportunities

Chapter 1 - "Tom take a simple example of what this means, consider the primitive technology of smoke signals." "Its form excludes the content."
I agree with Postman here.  Just like puffs smoke can not express complex ideas because they are so general.  The form of the puffs of smoke exclude what is held within it.  I think that he could have used better examples here. He should have used examples that relate to more people.  For example, he could have said that a school would not be a school unless it is actually filled with students or a jelly filled donut is not a jelly filled donut without the filling.  He was trying to state that technology would not be how it is without people making it all that it is.  I think that if people did not make technology to be so impressive, though it may be, that we would enjoy the other parts of life such as education.
Chapter 2 - "We are now a culture whose information, ideas and epistemology are given form by television, not by the printed word."
I also agree with this quote.  You can especially see this play out within the school system. An easy way for a teacher to get the students to learn important information is to use technology. They can show the stuents videos, use mobile learning devices, computers, etc. to make learning quick and enjoyable.  Though this is a positive thing for students, there could be some draw backs in the future. 
Chapter 3- "'the printed book released people from the domination of the immediate and the local;... print made a greater impression than actual events... To exist was to exist in print: the rest of the world tended gradually to become more shadowy. Learning became book-learning."
I agree with this quote in a sense that people back in the day did not have the technology we have.  They had to use books as their form of education and comunication because thats all they had.  Now since we have come so far, we have the opportunities to use technology. Its not that technolgy is destroying us, because I do not think that it is, it's just that it may have effects on us because we over use it.
Chapter 4- "Is there any audience of americans today who could endure seven hours of talk? or five? or three? Especially without pictures of any kind?"
I do not agree with this quote. I find it insulting that Postman believes that our generation could not sit through nor comprehend what the speech has to say.  I, along with many others go to school to educate myself so that I can stick up for myself when someone insultes our generation. Postman is relating our generation to kindergarteners.  He is doing this by making us sound like we need pictures to understand the discussion. Though we live in a society that technology is basically used daily, we still educate ourselves and learn the materials we need to.  The question is, will it have long- term effects?
Chapter 5-"How often does it occur that information provided you on morning radio or television, or in the morning newspaper, causes you to alter your plans for the day, or to take some action you would not otherwise have taken, or provides insight into some problem you are required to solve?"
Once again, I do not agree with Postman.  The news may be entertainment, but it also provides you with useful information.  The weather alters your plans for the day also if you heard there was a killer at the park you were planning on going to, you might not want to go there.  I know personally, my grandpa watches the news daily to see what's going on in the world and tells us that we should do the same.  He has had experiences where the news has helped him with with his health problems. The news has a doctor report on it which states when there are new discoveries, warnings, or just facts about health.  Therefore, Postman is incorrect in my eyes that, the news offers useless information.
Chapter 6 - "The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining, which is another issue altogether."
I disagree with this quote.  Not to say that it could be an issue that television is entertaining, but I think the way that the news casters say, "join us tomorrow" its not a mysterious question.  News can be taken seriously.  It can be entertaining and informing.  Just because something is entertaining, does not mean that it can not be taken seriously.  Teachers often say jokes that apply to the main message that they want the class to grasp.  The joke was entertaining, but it still could be informing and meant to be serious later.
Chapter 7 - "But it is through television that it has been nurtured and brought to a perverse maturity."
I agree with this quote. The younger generation is viewing television shows and watching their parents and older brothers and sisters every move. They absorb everything at a young age.  By watching unsensored shows, they are trying to act like the people they see.  Those on reality television, often swear, get drunk, have sex, etc. because they get paid a lot of money to do so.  This is one of Postman's fears.  That we are creating a bad future. 
Chapter 8 - "Without ensnating myself in a theological argument for which I am unprepared, I think it both fair and obvious to say that on television, God is a vague and subordinate character."
I disagree with this quote.  First, if Postman was unprepared for this argument, I do not believe that he should of used this example as one of his argument points.  Second, just because something is on TV does not mean that it can not be taken seriously.  Though most of it can be, there are also stations such as the history channel that are meant to entertain and inform you.  Therefore, the effects of entertainment still have not reached us if they will.
Chapter 9 - "'Politics,' he said,'is just like show business."
I agree with this quote. These two things only matter if you make it into them.  When you are campaigning or anything else involving politics, the only thing that is on your mind is winning.  The same goes for show business, in order to make it to a broadway play or a leading role in a movie, the only thing on your mind is being number one.  They also contain each other within themselves.  They have to use each other to succeed.  In politics you have to show off your candidate and in show business, you have to use politics to make it to the top.  Postman was trying to show how clarity, honesty, and excellence are also needed in both of these.  His point was to prove how television is opposite from this.  We need to put this into television in order to make it succeed in not being taken unseriously, according to Postman.
Chapter 10 - "It encourages them to love television"
Here Postman was trying to say that Sesame Street was doing this.  I agree that Sesame Street lets kids love television and in a way be attached to entertainment, but not in a bad way.  They are being entertained while learning and enjoying it.  If more kids liked learing then they would not be so obsessed with being entertained.  They would want to read and write to make themselves more intelligent.  Every Sesame Street show has a lesson behind it, while teaching the child basic skills.
Chapter 11 - "He believed with H. G. Wells that we are in a race between education and disaster, and he wrote continuously about the necessity of our understanding the politics and epistemology of media."
I do not agree with this quote. We are not in a race between education and disaster. This only happens to those who let it happen. Technology is a nice, fast, enjoyable invention that we have.  We should enjoy that there are people out there who educate themselves to make this technology. We should not be put at blame for those who can not think for themselves.  Those who do not try to educate themselves or even care if they are or are not. So I take it as an insult when he states that many of us do not know what we are laughing at, we just enjoy that we are being entertained. 

I don't need no education...

The distinction that Postman makes in the last paragraph is that we often laugh and do not know what we are actually laughing at.  His solution for us is that we need to drop the entertainment and educate ourselves. Through entertaining ourselves, we are losing an understanding.  If we don't understand the problem, then how do you think that we will find a solution? In most cases, we will not.  By understanding the issue, we will be able to make decisions for ourselves and not just go with what everyone else thinks.  We were given free will for a reason.  Therefore, we need to educate ourselves so that we are not dependent on the world and we can rely on ourselves. 

Never Make Me Not Talk Again!

The assignment to not talk again was EXTREMELY hard.  I did not think that this was going to be that hard but I was strongly mistaken.  There were many words or phrases that I could not convey with illustrations.  Many people did not know we had the assignment and it was difficult sharing with them what we were doing.  I was grateful for the teachers that would share with others why we could not talk and also those who were understanding.  There were some teachers who would not go along with this experience and I was very upset with them because it was not hurting them in any way. 
During my day of no talking, I was on my way to 5th hour.  In 5th hour, I am an office aid.  When Tina, Paige, and I arrived, we soon realized that none of us could talk.  One of the tasks we have to do in office aid is answer phones and none of us could.  The secretaries were understanding and let us continue our assignment, but asked why we were given this assignment.  It was very difficult to illustrate and act out why we were doing this besides that it was an assignment.  They enjoyed guessing though and said that we made the office very interesting that day.
Through this experience, I have learned that I am very thankful that we are given the gift to talk.  At the end of the day, I couldn't stop talking.  I also learned that I never want to go a day without talking again.  I love talking. I am glad that I completed the assignment, but am even more glad that it is done.

Entertaining Ourselves to Death

Postman’s speech and his book relate to each other in many ways.  One of these ways is shown towards the end of Postman’s speech when he reveals that “we will talk more with machines than we will with humans.”  This relates to what he had to say in chapter 1 on page 6.  On this page Postman states that, conversation refers to techniques and technologies metaphorically to exchange messages.  This means that our conversations will not be by being with the person, but we will converse with them by using technology.  Another way that Postman’s speech parallels to his book in chapter one is when he states what Henry David Thoreau had to say.  Thoreau stated, “All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end.”  When Postman quoted this, I think that he meant that even though we are constantly creating more things, it’s a never ending cycle because we will always want to create more.  We want to entertain ourselves to death by creating more machines to do this.  This is just like when Postman talks about Los Vegas as a symbol of entertainment (Pg. 3,4) and how lots of people go there for the entertainment.  We as people, have a habit of constantly entertaining ourselves. 

Mothers Know Best

1.         Within the first six words of Linda Chavez's article, she was trying to get the point across that people need to be polite when it comes to their writing and speeches. They should be respectful and careful with the words that they choose to say and write. On the other hand though, people should not to take offense to things that are not played out to be as they think.
2.         Bellicose is to have a warlike nature.  Linda Chavez discusses how politics are bellicose through the candidates competition. She decided to use this word, to show that politics relate to war. They do this through using words such as "rounds" and "took his best shot", which are words often used to discuss war.
3.         A.) Chavez was trying to persuade her readers into understanding that we should be careful with the words that we choose to write and say. Words can mean little to one person and have a huge impact on another because different words have different meanings then they used to. Like our moms all used to say, “we should think before we talk”. These sayings apply to Chavez’s article.  She wants us to not just say the words, but actually think and know what we are saying.
            B.) Chavez proves this through her example where she talks about the mayor used the word “niggardly” which had no meaning to race or color and how he was forced to resign because people found it offensive.

4.        Chavez’s article covers that we should be respectful with the words that come out of our mouths and the things we write.  She says that many words have different meanings then they used to.  People should not take offense to some words that others say because most people do not mean to be rude when they say what they say.  Linda wants the people who are not careful with what they say and don’t think about what they say, to take a step back and think it through.   Though we have the freedom to say what we like, we should remember that people have feelings and we should try not to hurt them.  Chavez’s whole goal was to get people to think before they say and act.  Therefore, I completely agree with what Chavez had to say in her article.

Reuse ourselves?

Semrau’s point in this article is, “Conserve, reuse, recycle. More and more those words are becoming guidelines for our existence.” The point lead to Semrau discussing how these words were guidelines in his life.  Semrau’s first decision was that he wanted to work until he died and the second decision was that he wanted to be “green” and also be productive in his older age. Semrau had a dream to go to medical school to become a surgeon. He was going to reuse himself or, “use what you have until it can no longer function.” I feel that Semrau kept out some information on why we should join in on what he is doing and the fact that he was going to medical school as a cadaver, not a surgeon.  Semrau was going to follow his second decision by using his body after his death as a cadaver which would allow him to be “green”. This did not help the intent because he did not elaborate on this topic well enough so we did not know why we should also do this. I do believe that Semrau was effective on discussing on how we should reuse ourselves throughout our lives.

Savior of the Nations, Come!

As you read the hymn “Savior of the Nations, Come”, the theme that shows through was that Christ was born to be our Savior.  Luther begins by stating how Christ came to earth to take away our sins. He then tells the story that Jesus was born of a virgin, but conceived through the Holy Spirit. Luther continues to state how we are sinful and sometimes take for granted our great and majestic God. As the fourth and fifth verse approaches Luther states Christ’s death and victory over death and the devil. The last two verses cover how God’s truth brings light into our lives and through our faith we receive eternal life. We should give God all the glory in all that we do.

Luther used climax as his literary device. The way he proves this is by in the beginning, he slowly begins by telling Christ’s purpose in coming to earth and then lists how he was born of a virgin, dies on the cross, and his victory over death and the devil. At that point though, he reaches his climax. Luther says we should give Him all honor and praise! It is because of him that through our faith we are given eternal life! Thanks be to God for all he has done!