I Would Rather Have a Beer With...

In Mark Edmundson’s article entitled McLuhan: It’s all Going According to Marshall’s plan he talks about how he felt that our world was going to be impacted by technology in the future.

       “Technology is the knack for organizing the world so we don’t have to experience it.” (Edmundson)This is very true basically the media are the “monarchs of technology.” An example is the political advertisements; the candidates virtually compete via advertisement on television. No longer is it about what they have to say, it’s about how many and how good their advertiser is. He speaks to the Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960 where we were moving toward the idea that the candidate who “best manipulates his “image” will win. I feel that this is so true in present day. Currently we are going through the Obama vs. McCain debate. Edmunson is so right that the candidates are almost having an advertisement fight, which can make them look more appealing to the audience.

And everyone remembers when voters were basing their votes in the 2004 election on ‘who they would rather have a beer with’ now we just know our political system has gone to shambles when that is a deciding factor on the fate of our country.

            “McLuhan saw that what we call “the media explosion” is not an isolated blast, but one in a series of detonations that will probably last through and beyond our lifetimes.” (Edmundson) The first explosion that he referred to was radio, television, and film.  He was right to call this an explosion because it almost “perfectly anticipated” the negative effects of our now media generation including video games and discs, cable etc. McLuhan describes television as “the ultimate depth experience because the viewer had to participate fully in creating the image.” (Edmundson)

            The second generation of the ‘media explosion’ includes video games. The pace of it is swift and there are levels to beat, you can and will get ultra involved in what is going on. “He and the game become, temporarily, one self-contained unit.” (Edmundson) These days you can do everything with a video game, Nintendo’s Wii has also made it possible to work out with the video game, hence giving you no reason to virtually ever interact with the outside world. It’s kind of scary when you are taking fitness advice from a computer…right?

Edmundson, Mark. McLuhan: It's All Going According to Marshall's Plan. Channels. (May-June, 1984) pp. 49 - 54.

Business Week. Reaching The Simultaneous Media Multitasking Consumers http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/12/bestideas/image/mmedia.jpg