Comments on: What Marshall McLuhan knew about social media (that technology experts today don’t)

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:03:45 +0000

Thanks for that Michael! Individual and cultural context are critical to consider, particularly in a world of ‘borderless’ communication. Truth, meaning and value are relative concepts, something many communicators (which really includes all of us at one time or another) loose sight of all to quickly.

By: michael edmunds

michael edmunds — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:49:13 +0000

A more comprehensive view is this quote by McLuhan to J. Miller (his critic)

“All I am saying is that any product or innovation creates both service and disservice environments which reshape human attitudes. These service and disservice environments are always invisible until new environments have superseded them. When we met last year, you seemed to concur as a neurologist with the fact that inputs are never what we experience, since any input is always modified by the entire sensorium as well as by the cultural bias of the individual.”

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:36:46 +0000

Actually I’d say McLuhan was still right about that too!

Thanks Helen.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:00:45 +0000

Great analysis Jay… it’s hard to believe that so many Danes signed up for Facebook without enjoying the content at all. The primary content of most online networks is the potential to connect, and in this, facebook is King.

On the other hand, Marshall McLuhan also said “Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.”