Mcluhan

Marshall McLuhan is known his theory that “Medium is the Message.” It doesn’t matter what we see, hear, taste or touch, it is the medium that our senses are reacting from. The message would be obsolete and the importance would be lacking if we didn’t have these devices or “extensions” as he would call it to extract this message from. Mcluhan discusses extensions of different body parts through the usage of differing mediums. For example the phone is the extension of the ear and a keyboard may be an extension of the hand. These devices are just appendages of our senses. These gadgets have become accessories that society cannot live without.

McLuhan compares societies outlook as if they were looking through a rear-view mirror. We focus only on what is in front of us and ignore the entire world around us. This world is something we have become accustomed to and recognize like it was the back of our hands. But only when new environments come into play is when we become aware of our own environment. McLuhan believes because of this we are one-step behind. We become so attached to our nostalgic devices that sometimes we fail to realize that our world is behind.

McLuhan states “Whenever we watch a TV screen or read a book, we are absorbing these extensions of ourselves into our individual system and experiencing an automatic “closure” or displacement of perception; we can’t escape this perpetual embrace of our daily technology unless we escape the technology itself and flee to a hermit’s cave.” Mcluhan believes that these technological trends will suck the human race in without even trying. Society will become so attached, that we will start to look at these object as if they are gods. We view look up to technology as if it is was a higher being. We will become so reliant on these mediums that we wouldn’t be able to live without them. Before technology, the bow and arrow, for example, would be the extension of the hand to hunt and gather food. Now we have the our cellphones where we could order pizza online and have it delivers to our house. Our culture depends on these mediums to feed our needs as to where we had to survive by ourselves.

Common uses of technology in our culture relates to McLuhans ideas of global telepathy which is the universal consciousness of society around you. This is with the help of the computer. McLuhan predicted that the computer would become this multi-purpose machine that some how could connect you to different cultures, making you aware of the world around you. Social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, just to name a few, are extensions of ourselves. These outlets allow us to connect and be a part of someone else's environment. These media passages network you with people you might have never known existed. An example of this a dating website. I mention this from personal experience. I might have never meet my Fiance if these types of websites existed. Having the accessibility of web cams, cell phones, and the interconnected pathway that allows all of this, the internet, I would have never known he existed. People outside of your environment are nonexistent until they are introduced. It is an interesting concept to grasp and a questioning one at that.