Flood...The Numbing of the American Mind: Culture as an Anesthetic

1. Flood
The Numbing of the American Mind: Culture as an Anesthetic
Samantha, Landon, John, Adeline, Ethan

2. Basic Overview of Zengotita’s essay
● Zengotita’s idea in this section is that we are constantly surrounded with the same
ideas all over the media that are created to infiltrate your subconscious. He says,
“Today, your brain is, as a matter of brute fact, full of stuff that was designed to
affect you”.
● He uses an example of how when you see increasing news about AIDS in Africa,
or see a weeping fireman after putting out a fire, you no longer feel emotional or
triggered. We are over exposed to these things and it's hard for our brain to feel
remorse after the repetitive sights of these instances.

3. Observations of the Rhetoric
● Its not your fault:
○ You can’t help but become fundamentally indifferent because you're exposed all the time
○ It’s not your fault you’re so used to being moved
● Experts are doing this:
○ some of the most talented people on the planet (are) creating this psychic sauna just for you
○ Full of stuff that was designed to affect you
● Nature is less now:
○ You virtualize everything you encounter anyway, all by yourself. You won’t see wolves, you’ll see “wolves.”
○ You will get bored
● Not can you but DO you?
○ What is real and what is advertised/edited/meant to affect you? Can you tell?
○ Do you take the time to seperate them?
○ Or do you rely on the numbness of overstimulation to ignore the messages?

4. Cereals then…
● Fewer Choices
● One for each grain
● No choice overload

5. Cereals now - Too many to choose from

6. Before

7. Times Square - NYC

8. Uses active visual comparisons
● The discrete display melts into a pudding.
● Everything is firing message modules, straight for your gonads, your taste buds,
your vanities, your fears.
● Saying that it’s just more of what we had before is like saying a hurricane is just
more than a breeze.
● Title of our chapter

9. Uses several References
● Rice krispies and cereals
● AIDs Statistics
● 947th picture of weeping fireman
● Time Square
● September 11
● Baudelaire
● Flaneur
● Marriott/Ramada/Sheraton
● International Red Brick

10. Observations of the Writing
● Zengotita uses sensory imagery such as our sense of sight to display different
images in our head.
● He does this by first describing the type of environment the image he wants us to
imagine is from. Whether it’s an image from a human-type environment or more
of a natural environment.
● He then describes the time in history the image takes place followed by what the
image looks like today.
● Finally, he compares the two images from the different times so we can visually
see the differences in them.

11. How This Relates to Us
● Compared to times in the past, people now are exposed to the
“floodgates” of what is now modern culture. The sensory
overload from the amount of mainstream media that someone
consumes has been exponentially increasing, and the way we
deal with that has changed.
● Most people now have embraced the changes, using media to
stay up to date with the latest developments in the modern
world. While others, which can be damaging, blind themselves.

12. Why We Should Care
● Since everything around us is made to affect us, don’t you want to know how it is?
● How much time does it take to go shopping?
○ Cluttered, strategically placed items, everything different colors, different sizes, screaming “buy
ME, I’m different.”
● How many of you have changed your majors? (why?)
● “But if there’s a lot of different things in terms of ... what do I eat, what do I wear,
what do I do with my day especially on a day off, that can create stress,” Dr.
MacLean added, noting that “by the time the average person goes to bed, they’ve
made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy, and
certainly can deplete us.”

13. Example: Social Media
● Constant updates
● Bite chunks of information
● Endless cycle of posts
● Collective bits of attention and time

14. Example:
Modern
Day
Education
Infobesity

15. Examples; E-commerce

16. Image and Information Credits
Why "Infobesity" is Enemy #1 in Nursing Education & How to Slim it Down! - KeithRN
Reducing Cognitive Overload For A Better User Experience — Smashing Magazine
Old New York in Photos #22 - Times Square 1908 (stuffnobodycaresabout.com)
Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and Empire State Building Night Tour in New York - Klook
Technology Overload? - School Health NJ
https://lovepik.com/images/png-drinking-water.html
Berg, Sara. “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew About Decision Fatigue.” American Medical
Association, AMA, 19 Nov. 2021, https://www.ama-assn.org/print/pdf/node/78201.