Are Friends Electric?

I have always heard of Marshall McLuhan because of my fascination with media and because of his brief cameo in Annie Hall but I never explored any of his ideas. I am very glad that we had to read this interview because after I was finished I was blown away. The fact that this was from 1969 was astonishing because he was clearly onto concepts that seem much more important now than they must have at the time. People probably could not fathom what he was talking about and that’s what makes this an exciting read. One of my favorite topics McLuhan discussed was his classification of media as hot and cool. At first it did not make much sense to me than all of a sudden it clicked. Because of the lower quality of television it forces the viewer to do more subconscious work than they would ever know. It really does seem like a type of brainwashing, which is scary. I like how he tied it into politics regarding JFK and Nixon. I have seen the old debates and McLuhan is spot on. Kennedy wore makeup, came of cool and overall let people place what they want into him. He left room for one to place themselves inside of him. Or in other words comes off more relatable and it is easier for the viewer to project what they want from him. Nixon seemed angry and out of touch. He also did not leave this space Kennedy left for the viewer to identify with him. McLuhan then describes film and photography as a hot medium in the way it excludes the viewer. The way film itself is a concrete thing and not full of holes like TV signals. This is particularly interesting to me because of the absence of film in modern cinema. Movies are no longer shown on film so does this make films a cool medium now? Are there now holes in quality that the viewer places himself or herself within because of it similarity to television? There are still filmmakers fighting for film to remain prevalent but it is pretty much dead because of the ease of digital equipment. I think there must be something in physical film, besides the obvious visually, that is lost in modern movies.

I also found his romanticism of primitive man to be interesting. McLuhan presents this idea that before any filtration of life, even written dialogue, mans senses were in perfect balance. Humans lived a life in which they had no distractions from the physical world. This is very interesting but, it seems that it would be pretty unavoidable for progress and evolution to occur. But I look at my friends and myself. Most of the time we're looking down at our phones in a whole different world. It’s a world that happens in our head and takes up way too much time. This leads into another theory of McLuhan's in were he describes media as an extension of ones self. In this case the smart phone is an extension of he brain. It can seen as an upgrade where we all of the sudden can know pretty much anything we want at any time. We can tell people what we are thinking without even opening our mouths. We can talk shit about people an inch away from us and they would never have a clue. It is almost like a form of ESP or something. That sounds ridiculous but I really don't k now how to even describe it otherwise. When McLuhan spoke of global telepathy he was pretty much spot on in the way he said it would be found in the computer world. I wish McLuan got to see this unfold to laugh at people and tell them he was right but I'm sure he knew he was onto something.