There was a book published in 1985, written by Neil
Postman titled "Amusing Ourselves to Death." He describes some of the trade offs
between going from a print based culture to one that is in many ways screen based. Like
the people in F-451 who cannot seem to find any meaningful existence outside of their
entertainment, he argues that in some ways the massive focus on entertainment has
cheapened political discourse and had a number of deletorious effects on modern
society.
If you look at Mildred and her inability to find
any satisfaction in real life and her total absorption in the screens and her desire to
have one more so she has the whole wall you can see a representation of this
possibility, something that Bradbury certainly had in mind as he watched the
proliferation of TV for the first time.
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