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When we talk about Canadians famous for analyzing new media, we often think of Marshall McLuhan first. With his koan “the medium is the message,” McLuhan synthesized his basic idea: Our tools, from electric light to television to phones, change not just how we communicate, but what we communicate about.
Clive Thompson • Social media is keeping us stuck in the moment
The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan
hannemyr.comMcLuhan once said, “We don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t a fish. A pervasive environment, a pervasive medium is always beyond perception.” The big point to McLuhan is this: the messages that these media of written language are sending to us go far beyond the actual content or subject matter of the thing that’s being written abo... See more
Marshall McLuhan • Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
McLuhan’s view is that mediums matter more than content; it’s the common rules that govern all creation and consumption across a medium that change people and society. Oral culture teaches us to think one way, written culture another. Television turned everything into entertainment and social media taught us to think with the crowd.
Ezra Klein • I Didn’t Want It to Be True, but the Medium Really Is the Message
But McLuhan would say, try not to only think about the fact that we make the tools. Think about how much the tools make us as well.
Marshall McLuhan • Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
That’s why McLuhan said that every time a new medium comes along—a new way for humans to communicate—it has buried in it a message. It is gently guiding us to see the world according to a new set of codes.
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
The greatest discovery of the 21st century will be the discovery that Man was not meant to live at the speed of light.” – Marshall McLuhan
That’s why McLuhan said that every time a new medium comes along—a new way for humans to communicate—it has buried in it a message. It is gently guiding us to see the world according to a new set of codes. The way information gets to you, McLuhan argued, is more important than the information itself.