Marshall McLuhan

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About

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian educator, philosopher, English professor and communication theorist. He is known for his great contributions to media theory and the study of advertising and television industries. He became known in the 1960s for his phrase “the medium is the message” and for his argument that it is the characteristics of a particular medium rather than the information it disseminates that influence and control society.[1]

McLuhan is perhaps more of an anthropologist than he is given credit for. He extensively studied media as an extension of man. "We become what we behold", he wrote. "We shape our tools and then our tools shape us".[2][citation needed] But "in the electric age we wear all of mankind as our skin", and that "The automobile is an extension of your feet, clothing an extension of your skin, glasses an extension of your eyes, the internet an extension of your nervous system".[2][citation needed]

McLuhan wrote that "The computer is the most extraordinary of man's technological clothing; it is an extension of our central nervous system. Beside it the wheel is a mere hula-hoop".[3] and that, "In this electronic age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving toward the technological extension of consciousness".[2][citation needed]

Related Reading

References

  1. New Oxford American Dictionary, 2011.
  2. Citation needed
  3. McLuhan, Marshall. War and Peace in the Global VIllage, as quoted in Mann, Steve. Cyborg: Digital Destiny And Human Possibility In The Age Of The Wearable Computer, Pg. 1.