Theme 4

Herbert Marshall McLuhan is a well-known educator, philosopher, and scholar. One of his most important ideas is the fact that media creates new ways of thinking and new environments. McLuhan also said that media affects out way of thinking. Although this may seem at first like a good thing, it really is not. In fact, certain media has actually affected our thinking, attention span, and memory.

One of McLuhan’s major theories is known as technological determinism. This is the idea that technology determines social changes in our culture and in society. He once said, “We shape out tools, and they in turn, shape us.” Our society is definitely shaped by new technologies. They create new environments our society has never been exposed to before. For example, the introduction of computers and cell phones in the past have greatly affected and changed our culture, both positively and negatively. It changes how we work throughout the day and how we communicate with other people. However, although new technologies like computers and cell phones had their advantages, they have also created problems. One major issue is that it is changing the way we think. Statistics prove that people’s attention span’s and memory have lessened as well. This is because the new technology has allowed for any and all information to be at our fingertips, whenever we need them. The article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, explains these facts. He says that Google is doing the work of the mind. People no longer have to search for information anymore. This, in turn, has made people become less patient and less interested.

Another issue about new technology is how it affects children. Children are now learning in an extremely different way than years ago. This is because kids have become so preoccupied with technologies like phones, computers and video games, that learning is of no importance to them. In the article, “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies By Their 20’s”, Bratt Stone says that children are technologically advancing at such a younger age because of new technologies.

One of the most interesting issues about new technologies is the idea of reading books. In a CBS News article titled “Huge Decline in Book Reading” the author Raksha Shetty says that only 47% of American adults read literature. The reason for this is the rise in television, movies and Internet. She also states that the most drastic decline from a decade ago was young people age 18-24. Only 43% of this group has read any literature, compared to 53% in the last decade. This decline is solely due to electronic media. People have new and more exciting things to pre occupy themselves with now, so why would they want to read a book; something that actually requires effort.

According to Marshall McLuhan, media gages the way we think and communicate. It drives social change. Although these electronic medias are beneficial to our society in many ways, they are also very concerning and detrimental to our learning and ways of thinking.