As a thought experiment, I’ve been changing the references in a few passages from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). What do you think?

To take a simple example of what this means, consider the primitiverelatively recent technology of smoke signalsshort-form video. While I do not know exactly what content was onceis carried in the smoke signals of American Indians typical TikTok post or Instagram reel, I can safely assume it diddoes not include philosophical argument. Puffs of smokeOne minute shorts are insufficiently complex to express ideas on the nature of existence, and even if they were not, a Cherokeephilosophershort-form content creator would run short of either wood or blanketslose the audience’s attention long before hethey reached histheir second axiom. You cannot use smokeshort-form video to do philosophy. Its form excludes the content.