8. Mediated

How the Media Shapes the World and the Way You Live in It

by Thomas De Zengotita

Hey, if you like being talked down to as much as I do, you are going to love Mediated Its not just that Zengotita assumes that he knows everything about you, or that he belittles every choice you've made in your life, because he humbly admits he is in the same boat. No, what makes his book *really* stand out is the boldness of putting such an academic work forward that contains absolutely no research.

For example, he talks about "Ridgewood Family Night", in which the town of Ridgewood New Jersey passed a law making one night a week "Family Night", in which local residents had to spend time with their families. Well, it wasn't so much a "law" actually, it was more of an 'initiative', and it was only for one night, to make a point. But that doesn't matter. What good are facts?

And its clear that De Zengotita has no interest in silly things like 'facts', where most authors would include some actual data, he boldly shows how little accuracy matters. For one small example, in this paragraph he's talking about a plaque he read:

The plaque said something like "To the memory of those who lost their lives in the Great Storm of 1908," or 1928, or whatever it was. An "8" figured into it, I recall.

Interestingly, he references the Unbearable Lightness of Being in a sort of flip and passing way in the context of his book, but never actually credits the book with being a philosophical precursor to many of his own ideas (with regard to the relative importance/unimportance of our lives).

Oh yeah, I the book was somewhat about how the media shapes our lives or something - i'm not sure, I guess I could open it again and check.

"Whatever".