Sunday, December 6, 2020

Short Basic Summary: The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman

The Disappearance of Childhood – Neil Postman


In his “The Disappearance of Childhood” Neil postman distinguishes three periods in human history when it comes to childhood.
 
1. Pre-childhood phase - the Middle Ages. There was no concept of childhood, the child was a small adult, a full partner in rights and duties, and in terms of knowledge there was no difference between adults and children.
 
2. The childhood stage - the age of printing. Thanks to the pattern, an understanding is needed, literacy is needed, a partition is created between children and adults - adults know literacy and children do not know and they depend on parental mediation, there is authority between parent and child, the child needs the parent to read the book. This is the ideal period according to Postman.
 
3. The stage of childhood loss - TV - As a result of its visual nature, television is accessible to everyone - a child and an elderly person equally, it does not require control of a particular code. In this age, according to Postman, we lose innocence and childhood - children grow up very quickly, parents and teachers lose their authority. Creates maturation very fast - the child matures very quickly and the parents try to stay young forever, blurring the distinction between the adult and the child. This is manifested in many areas: clothing, violence, rape culture, phenomena that have been prominent in recent years and according to Postman it is created because television becomes a socializing agent more and more affects children - they want to look like they are shown on TV In fact, in the war of company agents in front of the media. With the book the situation is different - because if a child wants to be exposed to a certain book that is problematic in terms of content - it is more limited - you have to buy it Of medium-level and content-level television.
 
And if Postman’s “The Disappearance of Childhood” was written in 1982, imagine what he would say in its 2022 updated digital age version?


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