Hey everyone!

So last week I wrote about a book I was reading,

​Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.​

Just yesterday, I finished it.

It talks about how television has revolutionised the way we interpret information and unfortunately, Postman cries out well-thought negativity on this change.

This talks about especially how we think critically and understand our perception of the world.

Now that I’ve finished the book I want to give some key points that I found incredibly helpful for you to consider and any useful neuroscience findings.

From the Printed Press to the Age of Show Business

In the first couple of chapters, Postman goes back in time describing how America was more engaged with deep public discourse, build upon the Founding Fathers who “were sages, scientists, men of broad cultivation, many of them apt in classical learning, who used their wide reading in history, politics, and law to solve the exigent problems of their time.”

There is one element that distinguishes between the two eras:

CONTEXT

In the Oxford Dictionary, context is defined as:

With the written format, Postman argues how this medium allowed for deep critical evaluation, pattern recognition (i.e. connection of ideas, and grouping), and the bonus of a higher attention span.

With the televised format, Postman argues how contexts have been stripped and replaced with what he calls “pseudo-contexts”:

In layman’s terms, television is a medium where the information is superficially interpreted without any written or oral word to provide any form of real historical context, and with no time for the viewer to provide any critical evaluation.

The only incentive left is to leave us entertained, Postman describes.

Feeling gratified by the performances we see, even if they are deemed to be serious issues.

This may sound controversial for some of you, particularly if we are in the midst of societal problems that you can think.

But it shows a human vulnerability that we are trying our ultimate best seeking the truth, to make sense of the big picture.

However over time we have created a challenge to interpret from abundant superficial moving pictures, especially at this time where short-form content is solving the problem of our frighteningly reduced attention span.

It’s worth reiterating from last week’s issue about the medium being the idea itself.

And you can imagine where Postman is coming with this;

If you imagine a serious issue presented in different media:

1. Book
2. News

They would have the same ideas, but different ways of being expressed.

And those expressions become the ideas themselves. One allows for deep connections of ideas, whilst the other produces the temptation of superficial interpretation.

This is just a simplistic understanding, and if you read the book it really change the way on how you think about information.

🧠 Neuroscience

The cognitive processing of interpreting context is called mentalisation or theory of mind.

Some brain areas include:

• dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC),
• bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ),
• anterior temporal lobes (ATL), inferior frontal gyri (IFG), and
• posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC)

​Meshi, Tamir, and Heekeren, ‘The Emerging Neuroscience of Social Media’.​

There are other areas involved in this one process, but it all goes to show how the neuroscience involved in mentalising is quite complex.

And this becomes even more challenging when trying to connect with Postman’s cultural rationale.

But a review by Willems and Peelen, ‘How Context Changes the Neural Basis of Perception and Language’ discusses how some of the brain areas are activated when a relevant picture was shown before text, described as “valid context,” and language areas utilised.

However the paper describes the presence or absence of context did not modulate activity in these areas.

But the exciting thing about this paper is the involvement of not just cognitive neuroscience, but also a bit of philosophy!

Now we really are deep thinking!

Thank you so much for reading this issue.

I have to be honest, I don’t really prefer talking about societal issues and bluntly talk about its problems (though I never intend to be blunt!)

But I wanted to share this incredible book, which I highly highly recommend if you want to change your view on the world, just as it has changed mine.

Have an amazing week!

Mark x