打卡5-6

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In Chapter 5 (The Peek-a-Boo World), the author argues that telegraphy and photography destroyed the coherent context of the print age, giving rise to a fragmented, illogical "Peek-a-Boo World", where information loses historical depth and relevance and becomes mere entertainment commodities.

I found an intriguing perspective in the former part about telegraphy: information overload disrupts the "information-action ratio." This means audiences passively consume endless news without internalizing or acting upon it. Most trending topics only spark fleeting attention, rarely prompting substantive action. Personally, I encounter vast amounts of information daily, yet few items ever translate into concrete actions.

The telegraph era has passed, but photography's influence persists more profoundly. Modern news media still prioritize visual impact to enhance appeal and expression. When browsing online content, I naturally gravitate toward image-based information. However, photography's inherent fragmentation and lack of logical coherence remain unchanged. Many images still exist in disjointed relationships with text, perpetuating the Peek-a-Boo World.

In Chapter 6 (The Age of Show Business), the author thinks that television has entertainmentized all public discourse, creating phenomena like "performative politics" and "entertainment-as-religion," where the public subconsciously accepts "entertainment as truth," dissolving traditionally serious subjects. This trend has intensified today. TV dramas and variety shows increasingly emphasize pure entertainment value. Lighthearted idol dramas dominate viewership, myself included. Most shows I watch prioritize entertainment over depth.

The entertainment infiltration pervades all domains: politics, culture, and economics. Take U.S. presidential elections as example: netizens globally create viral memes and short videos about this serious political process. On Chinese platforms like Bilibili, politically themed entertainment content proliferates. A solemn global political event thus degenerates into global amusement.

While entertainment remains essential to life, its elevation as the supreme criterion across all spheres risks eroding societal capacity for profound thinking and meaningful action. For individuals, this demands vigilance. When entertainment dominates our lives, our attention fractures into fragments. As short videos' instant gratification fills every moment, patience for deep reading wanes. When fragmented amusement becomes life's soundtrack, independent thinking atrophies. Prolonged immersion in entertainment's warm embrace, like the proverbial frog in slowly heated water, may ultimately drain our courage to confront reality and our agency to enact change, allowing life to slip imperceptibly from seemingly fulfilling distraction into existential emptiness.