Critique of McLuhan’s Technological Determinism Viewpoint or Lack of One Thereof

Here, Mentor Cana takes apart a good few of McLuhan’s theories. Firstly, Cana brings up the point in which he does not even consider McLuhan to fit the criteria of a technological determinist in coming up with all of these ideologies. With that said, Cana believes that McLuhan lacks the explanation of the process of technological innovation and construction of technologies. Cana also disagrees with McLuhan’s statement of “the medium is also the message.” He notes that the medium, in fact, can be independent of the message (content) yet it is more difficult to view the content apart from the medium which it has replaced. Cana brings up a good point that of which technology is useless without the actual content and/or result of it.

Mainly, Cana stresses that computers do not have a brain/thought process which concludes that they are merely mediums that of which compliment people’s activities. This belief counters McLuhan’s of which “human society is helpless and must, or eventually ought to succumb to the technological forces.”