During a recent vacation, I re-read Neil Postman’s classic of media criticism, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. I found it remarkably relevant on multiple fronts, especially regarding a challenge we all grapple with daily: the deluge of disconnected, decontextualized information.

I would argue that this deluge is now the context in which all business communication—and arguably all human communication—takes place. And Postman perceived its dangers decades ago, by means of an analogy with peekaboo.

All Media Are Not Created Equal

First published in 1985, Postman’s classic warns about the impact of television on society. Like Marshall McLuhan before him, Postman argues that the medium through which we convey information fundamentally shapes the message we wind up conveying. Printed books (one medium) convey information and ideas in ways that television, tweets, and reddit threads (three other media) simply do not. And the medium-constrained information we consume inevitably shapes how we understand the reality it represents.

Sidebar: If you doubt the extent to which “the medium is the message,” try sending an important apology to your wife via text message or submitting your resume by reading it into a voicemail.

In principle, no medium is inherently better than any other. Each conveys information differently and has its own strengths and weaknesses. But Postman makes no bones about the effects he believes “televisual” media have on society: “the content of much of our public discourse,” he says, “has become dangerous nonsense.” 

Because television communicates primarily through fast-moving images, sound bites, and content designed to amuse, the medium emphasizes brevity over depth and sensationalism over nuance. It insists that complex ideas be simplified, leading to superficial understanding of crucial issues—or, worse, bombastic misunderstanding that masquerades as truth. 

Above and beyond all that, television has conjured up what Postman calls “the peekaboo world.”

Now This … and That … And the Other

According to Postman, the rapid growth of electronic media in the 20th century effectively “called into being a new world, where now this event, now that, pops into view for a moment then vanishes again. It is a world without much coherence or sense … a world that is, like the child’s game of peekaboo, entirely self contained.” 

For Postman, nothing typifies this peekaboo world like the newscaster’s phrase “Now … this.” To wit:

There is no murder so brutal, no earthquake so devastating, no political blunder so costly–for that matter, no ball score so tantalizing or weather report so threatening–that it cannot be erased from our minds by a newscaster saying “Now … this.” The newscaster means that you have thought long enough on the previous matter (approximately forty-five seconds), that you must not be morbidly preoccupied with it (let us say, for ninety seconds), and that you must now give your attention to another fragment of news or a commercial.

With its “Now … This” mentality, the peekaboo world includes plenty of amusement but little depth. It overflows with expression but lacks reflection. It consists of an infinite sequence of information tidbits, of images and soundbites beamed in from anywhere and anywhen, each basically disconnected from one another and all adding up to … not much.

Fast-Forward to the Multiplatform Peekaboo World

Since Postman first published his book, I would argue, the peekaboo world has become ever more central to our informational lives. So much so, in fact, that many of us now accept a digital version of it as natural and even inevitable.

We no longer wait for the nightly newscasters, of course. These days, we carry our televisual feeds in our pockets and peer down at them every few seconds—as the speed of “Now … This” keeps increasing. Meanwhile, the digital media we rely on continue to structure our communications and interactions in ways that largely preclude deep examination and discussion.

The net of this is striking: Much of what we perceive about the world now reaches us through a multiplatform game of informational peekaboo–and we rarely stop to think about the weirdness of this fact.

Played across our phones and other “smart” devices, this perpetual game of peekaboo fundamentally shapes our perception of current events and history, of society and culture, of our colleagues and customers and competitors. It structures nearly everything we see, other than what happens directly in front of our faces, yet it has no underlying logic or rationale to speak of. Its driving force is just an assortment of competing algorithms, each designed to feed us more of what it thinks we want to see. It doesn’t prioritize accuracy or meaning or truth, just more views.

And we wonder why we feel so uncertain, overwhelmed, and confused.

We have more information than ever at our fingertips. But that is not, it turns out, the same thing as knowing better. On the contrary, when all we have is more information—without context, without clear purpose, without guiding insights—real understanding becomes harder, not easier. And so does anything approaching true communication.

Arguably, we’re no longer amusing ourselves to death. Instead, we’re doomscrolling ourselves to death, and neglecting to notice our perpetual peekaboo predicament.

Our Perpetual Peekaboo Predicament

The implication for those of us seeking to communicate is clear: Before we write or say a word, we should presume that everyone we’re trying to reach is already engaged in their own all-consuming games of informational peekaboo. Whether they know it or not, the people around us are drowning in an a “Now … This” deluge, just like we are. And part of our job, whether we like it or not, must be to help each other manage it. 

We can do that, I’d say, in basically two ways:   

1. Make the most of each peekaboo moment. Recognizing our collective predicament, we can work to capture one another’s attention more thoughtfully and use it more wisely. Typically, that would involve providing quick context and clear direction in all our communications, as well as prioritizing sincerity, simplicity, and even (when possible) silence. As every parent knows, in a game of peekaboo, smiles are every bit as important as sounds. Patience, humility, and deep listening go a long way, too.
     
2. Be clear about when peekaboo just won’t do. None of us can stop the “Now … This” deluge alone, but all of us can understand its serious limitations. We can reckon with the fact that some media just won’t carry some messages, that some topics require lengthy and undistracted engagement, that healthy discussion and debate are rarely built on knee-jerk reactions, and that information alone—without context, clear purpose, and guiding insights—is never enough to solve hard problems. We can then say to one another, “This is no time for playing peekaboo. Let’s get together and really think this through.”

We can even perhaps afford each other a bit more grace, space, and time for reflection and personal connection. We can worry less about notifications and more about getting to know.