Excerpts from Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man, Part I.

In these excerpts, McLuhan makes a comparison between the mechanical and electric age. Now existing in the electric age, McLuhan explains that we are more conscious of technology’s impact and consequences than before. The Age of Anxiety also refers to the electric implosion resulting in society’s conscious participation.

McLuhan demonstrates that humans typically bring all of their attention to the content rather than the medium itself. He focuses on the example of the electric light and that if it does not produce some sort of message such as a lit up advertisement billboard than it is not considered a medium. What our society tends to ignore is that in fact the electric light serves as a medium hence we could not be able to perform our daily activities without such a medium. He also introduces cubism which allows us to better visualize aspects of a medium and message as a whole. In this way, society is able to view the pattern and process in unity.

A contrast, by De Tocqueville, of France and America is later provided by McLuhan. He simply explains that various countries/cultures have unique norms that of which technology impacts differently.

Hot medium and cool medium are terms in which McLuhan later defines. A hot medium is one which does not require much participation from the audience. Examples of hot media would be a movie or the radio. The telephone and/ or seminar are examples of a cool medium hence the audience’s full awareness and participation is necessary. McLuhan mentions TV being a cool medium, yet I would consider it a hot one?

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.”

“The Medium is the Message”

In this piece, Todd Kappelman speaks highly of Marshall McLuhan emphasizing that his sole purpose was studying the impact of technology on popular culture and its’ influence on human relations and society. Amongst the several terms McLuhan had coined, Kappelman refers to the “global village,” which depicts our world coming together and focusing on our present expression.

Kappelman mentions McLuhan’s, disturbing yet very true, prediction that “we become what we behold.” This quote brought to mind teenage girls being bombarded by countless images of perfect/slim models in magazines, billboards, on television, etc. Such teenage girls might not take into consideration that many of these commercialized images have been photo-shopped/manipulated with, causing a good number of young adolescents to suffer from anorexia or bulimia. In reference to the advertising industry, McLuhan later notes that the media does not necessarily want women to obtain a certain look to impress men yet to put on an ideal performance for anyone ( to land that job, to feel noticed, etc.).

Another topic of the article is McLuhan’s ideology of “extension” and “amputation.” He explains that extension is a way in which we use something of which we have extended to create a new. An amputation is almost the opposite of an extension and refers to what the extension is taking place of. A car or plane would be an example of extensions of our feet. The walking culture would be the amputation. McLuhan notes that our society’s primary focus is on extensions and that amputations are usually ignored. We are so fascinated with how much more efficient and effective an extension might be that we disregard the consequences on the amputation level which could be pollution, obesity, etc. He also explains that our society becomes so accustomed to such thinking that we are immune to certain amputations or hazardous scenarios. For instance, although there may be a fast moving car or train a few feet away, people think nothing of it.

Lastly, Kappelman provided McLuhan’s “Tetrad,” laws formed as questions to view our culture in terms of a specific technological medium.

“What does it (the medium/technology) extend?

“What does it make obsolete?”

“What is retrieved?”

“What does the technology reverse into if it is over-extended?”

As We May Think

As We May Think

The article, “As We May Think,” by Vannevar Bush depicts our society existing in an age of complete information overload. From scientists to professors, we have specialists of all kinds who are constantly overwhelmed with records, findings, and readings. In this case more is worse; specialists are simply being bogged down by information overload. This article explains the importance of compression. For example, Bush emphasizes that technological advancement in the lab by using symbol/photo/ film equipment and brief commenting more so than extensive note-taking/printing is crucial in making findings more efficient. In addition, such note-taking/printing may produce inaccurate findings in result of clumsiness with one’s figures/writing. Bush also explains aspects of “simple selection,” in which record locator devices, such as he had named the “memex,” are used to find specific necessary information only.

I feel as if such devices can almost be comparable to certain internet search engines yet the only difference would be that one would be locating only his stash of records, information, and communication than the whole worlds.

This article describes a concept which seems inevitable nowadays. It seems as if all technological media needs to be able to compress, simplify, and selectively find information so that no time is lost with useless information especially since time is so pertinent in our generation.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

Amazing Web 2.0 flick. In a nugget, this clip is demonstrating that the use of XML grants us the ability to focus more on the content rather than simply focusing on the format with HTML. By being able to edit, tag, and do any of the other countless modifications we are able to teach the machine and others. The more we input information into the machine the more knowledge we contribute to our society. On the other hand, the more we use the machine the more knowledge we gain from it/ others who are contributing to it.

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

Interesting, who walks around with a Sony Walkman these days? In “Giving Up My Ipod for a Walkman,” by Scott Campbell, the father of a teenage boy introduces his old walkman that of which once served as the hippest gadget comparable to the iPod of today. Scott Campbell, a 13-year-old, decided he would give his iPod a rest for one week in exchange for using his father’s old walkman instead. Using the fast-forward/rewind buttons as the shuffle button and carrying around tapes in order to play more than twelve songs, Scott was surprised that his father viewed such a technological contraption with amazement in the past. A few more of the many inconveniences that Scott had faced were that the walkman was very large and bulky, had distorted sound, and very short battery life. The only advantage the walkman had over the iPod was that it had two headphone sockets built in so that he could more easily share music with someone and a power socket to charge the battery.
It seems to be apparent that by looking back at technology’s past, Scott was able to better appreciate the technology of today. Also who knows, if the iPod would even exist today without the invention of the walkman hence the convergence of old and new technological media enables the growth of more advanced and novel technologies. In addition, such an article can make one ponder about the iPod becoming close to an obsolete apparatus in the future just as the walkman had.