Neil Postman (1931–2003) was an American author, educator, media theorist, and cultural critic. He is best known for his twenty books regarding technology and education.
Born to a Yiddish-speaking family in Brooklyn, New York City, Postman attended the State University of New York-Fredonia and Columbia University. He taught media ecology at the School of Education at New York University (NYU.)
Postman was a prominent critic of mass communication (internet and television, particularly) concerning its effects on children’s developing minds. He also eschewed technology, including personal computers in school and cruise control in cars.
Postman’s works include Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969,) Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985,) Conscientious Objections (1988,) Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992,) The Disappearance of Childhood (1994,) and The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995.)
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People in distress will sometimes prefer a problem that is familiar to a solution that is not.
—Neil Postman
Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods.
—Neil Postman
Topics: Education
The point is that profound but contradictory ideas may exist side by side, if they are constructed from different materials and methods. And have different purposes. Each tells us something important about where we stand in the universe, and it is foolish to insist that they must despise each other.
—Neil Postman
Topics: Ideas
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