Tag: McLuhan

“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by electric media -movies, Telstar, flight- far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.” (McLuhan 14)

As technology advances, there appears to be a greater gap between family members. Quite often you’ll see families sitting together at a restaurant, but everyone will be staring into their cellphones. They’re together physically, but each of them is busy checking their Facebook account, watching a Youtube video, or texting someone who isn’t even in the room. Another example is when individuals will use technology to quite literally do the job of parenting for them. Again at the restaurant, it’s very likely to see a couple with their child who is busy playing a game on a tablet or phone. The couple is so engrossed with themselves and what they’re doing that it’s almost as if they’ve forgotten their child is even at the table. Instead of receiving some much needed bonding time with their parents, children seem to be at risk of developing a substitute familial relationship with technology instead.

 

“All media are extensions of some human faculty-physic or physical.”

McLuhan believed that it is in our nature to be obsessed to obtain more than what we already have. For instance, most of us are obsessed with fashion and vehicles because it makes us feel like we stand out in a crowd. McLuhan considered these things “extensions” because they enhance certain aspects about humans. The car, for example, is an extension of our foot because the car enhances our transportation.

People of wealth have a tendency to show off their wealth through the cars they drive, or the clothes they wear. But rarely do humans consider the negative aspects. Some of these clothes are made from factories that devalues their workers. Driving cars enhance pollution, hastening global warming. But humans forego these negative aspects in favor standing out.

 

“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by electric media – movies, Telstar, flight – far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage” (McLuhan 14).

In this quote, McLuhan is commenting on the fact that media has become more of a teacher to kids than their own parents. When young kids are exposed to the Internet they are given access to an endless supply of information at their fingertips. This can obviously go both ways, especially when it comes to consuming information on YouTube. There will come a time when the Internet becomes a child’s teacher, and since a kid’s brain is continuously developing it is sucking up information like a sponge. Media in general shapes who people become, because they are exposed to it so much. Examples of this could be watching youtubers, scrolling through social media, and watching television or movies. Not only do all of those shape the interests of individuals as well as their behavior, but it can also give them problematic or realistic depictions of certain situations. I’m not saying that everything a child consumes could be harmful to them, but at the end of the day the individual has to make an educated decision as to what information they want to consume.

McLuhan dubs the “Media Age” as an electrical circuit, because much like electrical circuits, we are programed in a very similar fashion. When I think of electrical circuits, I tend to think about a neuron. The reason being that it receives information which then gets processed and finally transmitted to another neuron. The way a circuit works is that they need to have a direct pathway of energy to charge something up, the most common example being a flashlight. The current goes through the circuits to the light bulb to light it up. The nervous system acts very similar to this, in that the neurons transmit information to the brain, and then the brain sends back information to the circuits. So how does this relate to the “Media Age”? Well much like how humans process information through neurotransmissions, we receive information from the media we consume everyday. The difference is that we accumulate so much information that our brains can only grasp a portion of information. On page 63, McLuhan comments that people consume information rapidly that as soon as information reaches us, it is then replaced with even newer information. This means that our brains are constantly being bombarded with information that we have to choose what to hold on to.

Jessica Merrick

2/20/19

McLuhan compares our society in the “Media Age” to an electric circuit. If you think about it, his theory makes sense because metaphorically the way our thoughts and how we can communicate things to others by using media, shows just how big of a role media plays into us giving and receiving  knowledge. The way an electric circuit works is through positive and negative wires being hooked to, say, a light bulb. A battery is also attached to the wires, transferring energy through the wires and into the light bulb. This gives the light bulb the power to light up. Our brain can work the same way. When you have an idea, the “light bulb” in your head goes off. In this case, the media is the battery. When we are introduced to, or use media, the creative aspect of our brains lets us think different ideas. This is also true for when we think general good or bad thoughts.

Lawrence Douglas

“Today’s television child is attuned to up-to-the-minute “adult” news-inflation, rioting, war, taxes, crime, bathing beauties- and is bewildered  when he enters  the nineteenth- century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but  ordered and structured  by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules.” (Pg 18)

 

With modern technology, we often notified and up to date with daily news. The things that adults would notify us of on current events we can find out for ourselves. The age of technology not only has expanded our knowledge of new topics that we didn’t know before. The nineteenth century was the time when technology was just getting started. With the use of technology now we are more adept to common events that occur around us. We can find this source of media anywhere on multiple forms of social media. Technology is an ever-expanding idea that we will continue through our lifetime

The Medium is the Message

Jessica Merrick

Remixing the Book

2/13/19

“All media are extensions of some human faculty—-psychic or physical” (26).

Many things are made up of media. Take technology for example. Since technology is constantly changing, so are we, especially since a lot of things are done using some form of technology. Just like transportation. Cars can be a replacement for a single person using their feet for walking or running. Instead of us physically in motion, a car takes the place of us physically in motion. in terms of how we function psychologically, media can take over how we think or process things. A computer desktop can be designed specifically to process information, save files, etc. It’s as if it’s an electronic brain.