The following is a short essay I wrote in response to an interview with Marshall McLuhan from Playboy, March 1969. It was written for my film theory class, but pertains closely to subjects that interest me, so I thought it might be worth sharing. McLuhan has some truly insightful ideas on media and communication; required reading for all designers in my humble opinion.
This still has to be edited.
According to [Marshall] McLuhan, there have been three basic technological innovations:
the invention of the phoenetic alphabet,
which jolted tribal man out of his sensory balance and gave dominance to the eye;
the introduction of moveable type in the 16th Century,
which accelerated this process;
and the invention of the telegraph in 1844,
which heralded an electronics revolution that will ultimately retribalize man by restoring his sensory balance.
~playboy, march 1969
Theoretically, one can directly relate the telegraph to the internet as it exists today: information being transmitted almost immediately, across potentially great distance. However, the sheer amount of data exchanged on the internet on a daily basis, and the manner in which it is exchanged, is evidence of an extraordinary shift in communication, a shift massive enough to rank among the aforementioned technological innovations. This essay aims to examine the culture of the internet, and all of the forms of communication it enables, through the lens of Marshall McLuhan’s theories and teachings.
Marshall McLuhan did the breadth of his work in the fifties, sixties & seventies, dying on December 31st, 1980. He often speaks of the formidable disconnect he recognized between himself and younger generations, observing significant changes in the media and methodology of communication. Though the first two nodes of what would become ARPANET, the predecessor to the internet, were connected in 1969, the internet was still in relative infancy when McLuhan died in 1980. The network of computers that was slowly spreading across the country was used almost exclusively by the United States Government until 1988, and the World Wide Web did not come about until a number of years later. Though the technology was in place while McLuhan was living, the power of the internet was not rendered upon the masses, those who would shape its use and content, until long after his death.
McLuhan’s concept of media as an extension of oneself was perhaps more abstract than the everyman could wrap his head around in his time: when McLuhan spoke of the “electronic age of instantaneous communication” he was referring to telephones, film, radio & television, all quite slow by modern standards. However, the crux of his argument is blatantly apparent when one considers contemporary social networking trends such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, MySpace, LinkedIn, Last.fm, Flickr, Blogger, Tumblr, Digg, Reddit, Vimeo and the innumerable others that need not be mentioned. Just in the past decade, the way in which people use the internet has changed immensely. What used to be a source of information, or perhaps a way to keep in touch with a distant acquaintance, is now a house of mirrors in which every tangible aspect of an individual’s existence, his or her friends, photographs, writing, work, music tastes and consumerism, is broadcast in all directions, refracted through various media, and distorted almost beyond recognition. Facebook, the most apparent example of this phenomena and the second largest web site in the world (via www.alexa.com), second only to Google, is nothing more than a network of individuals sharing content pertaining to themselves and other Facebook members. Though nearly 30% of all internet users visit Facebook on any given day, it is ultimately devoid of unique, consequential content. Social networking is the attempt to regain one’s identity, which is lost in the super-abundance of information available online. Presented at every turn with new ideas and experiences, each explained in astounding detail and with numerous references and applications, the individual struggles to find where he or she fits in. McLuhan, who cites the majority of the population as “only consciously aware of the environment that has preceded it”, attempted to look into the future with his explorations, and many of his theories have become more apparently accurate since his death.
According to McLuhan, the development of a phonetic alphabet was the first major shift in media for man; before the written word, communication was almost entirely auditory. The ear, he explains, is capable of interpreting levels of complexity and nuance that the eye, through reading, cannot. For example, the experience of reading a speech differs drastically from hearing the speaker deliver it. A pattern is defined: with each development that makes communication easier, a degree of personal, direct connection to the information is lost. The written word carries less intensity than the spoken word, the printed page lacks the personality and individuality of handwriting or calligraphy, and as with the aforementioned concepts, the internet represents the extremity of this pattern. Today, a computer with a connection to the internet almost completely eliminates the need for face-to-face human interaction. Through a flat screen, one can communicate with someone on the other side of the globe, shop for everything from groceries to automobiles, see the world through photographs, videos and written accounts, or even take a digital stroll down their own street. The de-emphasis of authentic, “tribal” interaction has had a profound effect on society to the degree that it is finally pushing back. For one of the first times in history, humanity is addressing the way in which it communicates instead of just the content being communicated, something McLuhan said has almost always been overlooked. Joe Swanberg, the filmmaker behind the movie LOL, is one of many artists directly addressing society’s relationship with media in contemporary times. This newfound exploration and awareness of human communication, coupled with the staggering technological advances made in the last thirty years, is fulfilling yet another of McLuhan’s once distant theories: humanity’s retribalization.
As the phonetic alphabet developed and the printed word became more prominent, the spread of knowledge and experience becomes diversified, creating rifts in “tribal” culture. With auditory communication, “no man knew appreciably more or less than any other — which meant there was little individualism and specialization”. This was the tribe culture: a largely shared commons of knowledge and experience. Up until very recently, humanity had been straying further and further from that ideal. Increasingly complicated systems of education created individuals to fill increasingly specific roles in an increasingly disconnected society. The internet however, is the greatest equalizer mankind has ever known. Before its inception, if one wanted to be a professional writer, photographer, filmmaker, musician or designer, he or she had to spend years in school, completing internships and apprenticeships before he or she even had the chance to earn and audience or following. The tools of creation were exclusive to those who could wield them with knowledge and expertise. Technological development has leveled this playing field, making the tools available to a huge chunk of the population, much to the chagrin of these skilled and experienced craftsman. According to internetworldstats.com, over 1.7 billion people worldwide, more than 25% of the population and growing, have access to the internet. These people, for all intents and purposes, have the exact same access to the largest and fastest growing database of information and culture ever compiled. This shared resource, with its increasingly prominent integration of sensory-indulgent multimedia, is in many ways retribalizing humankind, just as McLuhan predicted. The internet is connecting almost everyone, eliminating, or at least drastically changing, the specialized roles humankind leaned so heavily upon for so long. This new, worldwide tribe culture will not resemble any previously extant tribe in the least; it will be a new breed, with a new set of values and a new set of challenges.
Some insight into the significance of the internet’s participatory nature can be gleaned from McLuhan’s definition of “hot” and “cool”media. “Basically, a hot medium excludes and a cool medium includes; hot media are low in participation, or completion, by the audience and cool media are high in participation. A hot medium is one that extends a single sense with high definition. High definition means a complete filling in of data by the medium without intense audience participation.” In a world of big-budget Hollywood films and high-definition TV, a world of hot media, the internet stands as a cool, intensely interactive outlet. Curation culture, or the browsing of the internet, collecting interesting and compelling things along the way, uploading them to a blog or saving the bookmarks, demonstrates how inseparable the internet is from participation: even the act of looking has been made interactive. Since the web 2.0 movement, which began around the turn of the millennium, there has been a tremendous spike in interactivity and user generated content on the internet at large. It would take more than 400 years to watch all of the videos that users have uploaded to YouTube to date (via http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=163). By Marshall McLuhan’s ideology, it does not matter what drivel and garbage is contained in all of these videos; what is important is that people spend the time and energy uploading over 200,000 videos to the web site on a daily basis. That people are so eager to broadcast themselves to a global audience speaks to humankind’s desire to work towards a retribalization.
Though there is plenty to be wary, or perhaps even terrified, of as technology and communication develops at an every increasing pace, one must not overlook the opportunities that this communication renaissance presents. Whether Marshall McLuhan would embrace this fast paced and over connected evolution in media shall remain a mystery.
Theoretically, one can directly relate the telegraph to the internet as it exists today: information being transmitted almost immediately, across potentially great distance. However, the sheer amount of data exchanged on the internet on a daily basis, and the manner in which it is exchanged, is evidence of an extraordinary shift in communication, a shift massive enough to rank among the aforementioned technological innovations. This essay aims to examine the culture of the internet, and all of the forms of communication it enables, through the lens of Marshall McLuhan’s theories and teachings. (more…)
