McLuhan Response

I found Marshall McLuhan’s interview from 1969 quite interesting because of how relatable it still is to the present day and electronic media. Right in the beginning of the interview, McLuhan states how he has such a broad definition for media, and the theories that he has about it.

One of the first main points that I noticed that McLuhan made is how man is unaware of the effects that media has on themselves. He is specifically talking about television, because at the time of the interview, that was the newest form of electronic media. Social observers constantly overlook the effects as if nothing is really being affected at all. McLuhan states that, “…Man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in. As a result, precisely at the point where a new media-induced environment becomes all pervasive and transmogrifies our sensory balance, it also becomes invisible.” Just like with television, today our society is facing the exact same outcome with all of our new electronic devices and social media. Everyone is unaware what is truly happening when they spend all of their time with their faces buried in their iPhones, iPads, or computers, and when they are forced to be social without them, they do not know how to act or converse with others. Sadly this is the path that our society is heading in, hiding behind screens under different usernames and profiles.

The next main point I noticed that McLuhan spoke about was the importance of the phonetic alphabet. He explains that before the alphabet was created, all senses for man were balanced, and there was a dominant auditory sense of life. The only way to communicate was through speech, which left everyone with very little individualism. The alphabet was the beginning of detribalization, and the start of better understanding and development of things like time and space. However McLuhan explains that even though the phonetic alphabet was the first step to get to where we are today, it was also quite disastrous, because it led to things like schizophrenia and alienation. However just like with the alphabet and the technological advances it led to, with each new step we take an evolutionary process must also happen among us.

The last main point that Marshall McLuhan made that I believed was quite significant and relatable to our present day, is how the education system needs to change in response to the new electronic media. McLuhan explains how a child is stuck between two worlds, the one with a screen that has in-depth involvement, and the learning system, which has not changed to match the new electronic age. “They are becoming Cyclops, desperately seeking to wallow in the book as they do in the TV screen.” The same exact thing is happening today with children, especially the ones in elementary school. Kids grow up playing on iPads and watching interactive television shows, and then they come to school and their way of learning is no longer valid in the classroom without the screens. The education system has to catch up to where children are technology wise, so they get the best learning experience possible, instead of taking two steps back.