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University of Florida, CJC Online, Mass Communication Theory, MMC6400.
Do smartphones shape the way we experience the world?
Can mobile devices influence what we expect from ourselves and others in society?
How does technology have a controlling power in human affairs?
Marshall McLuhan's answer to these questions is called Technological Determinism, which advocates that "we shape our tools, then our tools shape us".
The technological determinism theory states that "media is the essence of civilization," promoting the belief that technology is a key factor in creating social change.
Historic wars were fought with fists, clubs, and rocks. The invention of the sword, compound bow, and gunpowder each altered the course of history through the centuries. In the 20th century, the discovery of nuclear energy changed the face of warfare yet again.
By the 21st century, drone warfare began delivering strategic strikes, reducing the number of civilian casualties. Each new technology caused a transition to a different type of society. Whether through warfare or communication, McLuhan proposed that technology determines the course of history.
Technology Determines History
Tribal Paradigm
During the tribal paradigm, people communicated through real-time conversation and storytelling. The dominant communication style was relational. But with the invention of the written word and printing press, the tribal paradigm was replaced.
Print Paradigm
The print paradigm departs from relational communication. Written text is not bound by time or distance, so it requires linear thinking to translate and organize a timeline of events.
The print paradigm also transitioned man's dominant senses from "hearing" to "seeing". This transition prompted even Socrates to complain that writing was making people lazy and forgetful.
Whether reading on a tablet or in a hardcopy book, print communication multitasking is not possible. Can you play football while reading an email on your cellphone? Or drive your car while reading a book?
Electric Paradigm
The electronic paradigm signaled the return to a more relational communication style. Electronic media extends man's ability to see and hear at distances, allowing people to interact in real-time with multiple senses simultaneously. For example, smartwatches and iPods allow people to watch television and answer a phone call while washing the dinner dishes.
Effectively, electronic communication technologies allow people to interact in the same communal manner as in the pre-print tribal era, but without limits of space and time.
Now that we've defined Technological Determinism and the evolution of communication, let's discuss three of Marshall McLuhan's most memorable concepts.
1. Media are the Extensions of Man
All technology is communication. In essence, technology extends our senses through time and space. Horses, bicycles, and cars extend our feet. Weapons and tools extend our hands. Telegraph, radio, and mp3's extend our voices.
Media allow us to see and hear things at a distant place and time, making us armchair time travelers.
Smart socks are an extension of our feet, smartwatches are an extension of our eyes and smart pants and shirts are an extension of our skin. These devices are created with electrical circuits, which are an extension of our central nervous system.
Technological Determinism - MassCommTheory.com
McLuhan proposed the tools that extend the human senses of seeing, speaking, and listening governs how people relate to one another and how interactions across society develop.
Humans have eliminated the concept of space with virtual sensory extensions. Is this technology augmenting our bodies while making us less human?
2. The Medium is the Message
Is the way we send and receive information more important than the message itself?
“It doesn’t matter WHAT you watch on television. It only matters THAT you watch television, instead of reading a magazine" - Marshall McLuhan.
Cell phone texting is a perfect example of how "the medium is the message". Whether texting or in-person, the message content, platform, and audience all depend on each other.
For example, saying "hello" to a person standing in front of you can be interpreted through vocal tone, volume, body language, eye contact, and other non-verbal cues. Isn't receiving a “hello” text just as dependent upon the medium through which the message is sent?
3. Global Village
The combination of "media are the extensions of man" and "the medium is the message" resulted in one of McLuhan's most popular ideas: "the global village."
As electronic media began to connect the world, McLuhan predicted a new worldwide social order. Did his prediction become a reality? Internet, satellite television, smartphone video calls, and virtual work platforms all prove McLuhan's visionary predictions.
On reflection, these accomplishments have expanded to create not only a global village but also global households. Personal mobile communication platforms like Facebook and Snapchat have expanded the global village to operate on an individual level.
Is it possible for all world cultures to become one global village? Will cultural globalization lead to a vast and rich marketplace offering equal economic opportunities? Or will the evolution of a global village lead to cultural domination?
Will the compression of culture over the Internet mirror the failures of compressed music on compact discs?
Criticism of Technological Determinism
"One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in."
- Marshall McLuhan
Despite McLuhan's many proven predictions, modern theorists no longer consider technological determinism to be an accurate view of how society develops. Instead, they emphasize that technology and society are not the results of a simple cause-and-effect formula, but an intertwining.
This new perspective claims that technology never forces itself on society. New technology merely opens a door; it doesn’t compel humans to enter. Man creates the smartphone and chooses how to use it through self-selection. The choice of using technology and experiencing its effects lies within the hands of a human being.
Does man harness technology to make life more convenient?
Or does the technology take control of man's choices, turning him into a servant or slave?
McLuhan did not live to witness the interconnected web of electronic innovations we now enjoy (1911 -1980) but his theories live on. The written word, an extension of spoken language through time and space, allows the voices of great minds like Marshall McLuhan to travel through time and speak to us today.
Does the internet succeed in creating Marshal McLuhan's "global village" or is this electronic technology further separating our societies?
The dominant way of communicating in society will affect the way social interactions and social organizations develop and evolve. How can we craft a world where we are brought together by our "black mirrors" instead of torn apart?
In this TEDxTalk, "Alone Together: How Technology Separates Us," Henry Williams discusses how humanity is “separated by inches, but internally operating miles apart.”
On a personal note, McLuhan's "the medium is the message" has powerfully impacted virtual music ensemble performances during the 2020 COVID19 pandemic.
Prior to 2020, the ability to synchronize across the internet's electronic space was fraught with connectivity and latency issues. But as a result of innovative technology developed during the 2020 pandemic, musicians are now able to successfully collaborate across this electronic landscape, performing in synchronicity across global time zones.
JackTrip Audio creates a space in which musicians can interact in real-time with other performers, hearing themselves and their own sounds in relation to the larger ensemble.
JackTrip Audio's Executive Director, Sarah Weaver, agrees with McLuhan's concept, "the medium is the message," advocating that the ability to communicate musical language across electronic distances in real-time is more powerful than a recorded past performance stating: "THAT it communicates is more important than WHAT it communicates."
QUESTIONS
Which is more important: the method or the message?
Do we expect more from technology and less from each other?
Share your thoughts.
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