If you can explain the components of that sentence (TV, medium, epistemological bias, critical thought) and you can explain what the sentence means as a whole, then you're well on your way to acing Friday's Postman quiz. If you cannot, then you know some things you should study.
(Note: that's my sentence summarizing Postman, not a quote from the book.)
Some other key terms: graphic revolution; electronic revolution; the typographic mind; Huxleyan Warning. If you have questions or thoughts about these terms, post them in the comment field below. Here are a couple of other things that you might find interesting:
A somewhat-recent article from the Boston Globe, concerning how imagination and creativity are affected by allowing the mind to "wander," concludes that children are less capable of imagination and creative thought than they once were. The cause of this, in part, is a drastically reduced threshold for boredom. It's not that kids used to like being bored, but that "empty time" did not previously cause the uncomfortable stimulation-withdrawal that we now call "boredom." Here's a paragraph:
After monitoring the daily schedule of the children for several months, [researcher] Belton came to the conclusion that their lack of imagination was, at least in part, caused by the absence of "empty time," or periods without any activity or sensory stimulation. She noticed that as soon as these children got even a little bit bored, they simply turned on the television: the moving images kept their minds occupied. "It was a very automatic reaction," she says. "Television was what they did when they didn't know what else to do."And how ironic of me to link to this video for your entertainment:
