Why am I laughing???

Postman differentiates between people laughing and being entertained instead of actually thinking, and not knowing exactly why they are laughing. Postman makes it clear that people are laughing unknowingly. People don't realize that they are living to be entertained. They do not understand why instead of thinking about things, our society and culture has turned our everyday life into one large comic strip, people are laughing and find almost everything humerous instead of actually thinking about things. The main problem that Postman is trying to get at, is that society today does not understand why instead of thinking we have turned to laughing, comedy, and entertainment as our way of life.

Friday's Experience

       Friday's not talking adventure was extremely hard. I struggled the most during lunch, my lunch table was extremely quiet because everyone was not able to talk. As I was sitting there, not talking, starring at each other awkwardly, I began to realize how important and necessary talking is to function properly and have a "normal" social life. Without talking life becomes suddenly and extremely boring, and trying to get your point acrossed is definitely more frustrating. In the same way Postman is trying to convey in the first chapter of his novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, that our society is beginning to rely too heavily on the media as our medium and our way to communicate with other people instead of communicating with other actual human beings with words and emotions. Postman is correct in his belief that the world is too focused on striving for the new and cool way to communicate yet by creating these cool and instant ways of talking by texting, facebook, and email people are lacking in the experiences of a social life and talking to other people face to face to understand what they mean.

Postman's Speech

    
Postman talks about in both his novel Amusing Ourselves to Death and in the video about image. Postman in his novel writes about how people rely solely on their outward appearance. People only care about how they outwardly appear, not their jobs, such as newscasters who pay more attention to their makeup then their script and their actual job. While during his interview Postman discusses the idea of cloning, and says that cloning will soon become a main event in the world. Postman says that many peole will depend on having another clone to be used just "in case" if during life they need a new organ to save their life. People have also been known to clone a sheep, a frog, and even a monkey. Postman both in the video and book is clearly that in the future our society will only be concerned with our image and become selfish and unaware of other things around themselves.

    Postman also uses the example from the author from the book Being Digital who predicted that in the future people will become more comfortable talking to inanimate objects then people in his novel Amusing Ourselves to Death. In the same way in his interview Postman is explaining how he thinks that society already struggles with being able to talk to other people and in the future people will become pets to their computers. That technology is slowly but surely controlling people and their lives in many aspects. Postman clearly feels that in the future there will come a time when people solely depend on technology for living their lives and communicating with others, while in reality the best way for living in true face to face communication with others to improve ourselves and our society.

The right words to say...

1. Chavez's intent of the first six words of her column is to explain and inform the read that while in public people have to  be mindful of what they say to others and by what they mean when they say something to another person. That the ways someone says a phrase or just a word to someone can cause anger and offend others.
2. Chavez uses the word bellicose in the quote, "bellicose metaphors have been a staple of politics from the beginning", because Chavez is trying to get the point acrossed to her readers that politics is all about taking a stab at the opponent and trying to defeat and win over the people. Chavez's intent of the use of bellicose is to remind readers that throughout history many people in politics use strong and sometimes aggressive and hostile metaphors to persuade others.
3A. Chavez is trying to persuade the readers that the use of strong words and even slang words can be understood that it's intent is to be powerful and forceful and not to back down. In politics there is the fine line of wrong and offensive and still being politically correct.
3B. I think Chavez's best example in the article is when she mentions the word change in the book by Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn. By changing the word nigger to slave the novel does not convey the same effect to the reader and the change can interfere with the reader's understanding. Chavez also points out that the change of the word also interferes with the authors intent of the novel and how the reader would understand it as well.
4. I agree with Chavez, because what she is trying to say is that in politics there is times where you cannot say certain terms and words which can be offensive. Yet the entire game of politics is to be the best and to not back down, and to strive for victory. Chavez points out that the French word "campaign" was used by the English to refer to the time spent on the battlefield, so as a result the idea that the political campaign trail is also a battlefield. Chavez's opinion is a strong and bold statement to the political world that even though terms and words can be considered derogatory, that restricting many of the terms used today, not necessarily derogatory terms, would tighten the rope on people sharing their opinions and clearly able to convey their message to others.