Essay Marshall McLuhans Understanding Media - 3740 Words

Marshall McLuhans Understanding Media In his groundbreaking work, Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan posits that technologies in the â€Å"electric age† rendered it impossible for the individual to remain â€Å"aloof† anymore . Over the course of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, while an increasing presence of electric machines in daily life irrefutably signaled our nation’s arrival into the electric age, society’s â€Å"central nervous system [was] technologically extended to involve [each individual] in the whole of mankind,† McLuhan states (20). Previously disconnected, isolated individuals and groups suddenly became compressed, involved in each others’ lives, and unified into a network. As opposed to the preceding mechanical age, this†¦show more content†¦Finally, Houdini’s performances, which were especially popular in the first decade of the 20th century, created a social space where individuals could gather together and watch a man fulfill their fa ntasy: escape from modern society. The irony is that Houdini’s shows, which unified individuals into groups or audiences, succeeded by flaunting separation and freedom from technology, instead of celebrating any unifying qualities of technology. Regardless of whether their work was intellectual or not, these three turn of the century artists suggest that Americans were more ambivalent about the role of technology in their lives than McLuhan indicates. Adams, James, and Houdini do not pretend that technological progress can be prevented, nor do they protest that society should retreat to the safe mechanical age. Rather, they argue that in the electric age, technologies can be just as divisive and separating as they are uniting. For Henry Adams, technology and forces in the future create separation in two ways: first, evolving technology creates a generational gap that separates the old American from the new; second, evolving technologies ultimately lead mankind toward destruction, thereby separating people from theirShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Medium is the Message1923 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"The medium is the message,† uttered by the late media scholar and theorist Marshall McLuhan, and they have been revered and dissected ever since they were spoken. There has been several different interpretations on the premise of McLuhan’s words, and the meaning behind them. The best way to start unraveling his theory, is to get a general understanding of the terms used in his famous quote. 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