Marshall McLuhan: Global Village and the loss of individuality

Conclusions ahead of time.

Feel free to comment, criticize. It's an important topic for contemporary man.

Definitely, Most of us just let the T.V. pick and chose what's important In our lives. I can't stand it anymore I stop watching T.V. and keeping up on current events for this very reason.

I remember that I was having a conversation with my father during that Chilean miners rescue. He started to get a little emotional I told him you don't even know these people if it had not been for the news you would never have hear of them. He just got mad at me and just the other day I was at a friends house that I have not seen in quite sometime. He left the T.V. on while we talk almost all the conversation was of news of the day.

Don't get me wrong I'm no neo luddite Mcluhan got it right we just need to weigh the pro's and con's of technology on our self's before we make it a part of our lives.

In a way, it could promote individuality, because it exposes the viewer to very different experiences and ways of thinking. Whereas without TV or the internet, an individual's thinking processes are more likely to be similar to those around him; after all, we do become shaped by what we come into contact with everyday.

Originally Posted by sgman

In a way, it could promote individuality, because it exposes the viewer to very different experiences and ways of thinking. Whereas without TV or the internet, an individual's thinking processes are more likely to be similar to those around him; after all, we do become shaped by what we come into contact with everyday.

I agree with your first point but a individual may be influenced by those around them but if he or she opinions were to become similar they would cease to be a individual. Our true self is revealed not shape by our contact with the outside world.

I know you kids can't get enough of Marshall Mcluhan so here's a interesting interview

Originally Posted by Bote

YouTube - Marshall McLuhan - The World is a Global Village (CBC TV)

Conclusions ahead of time.

Feel free to comment, criticize. It's an important topic for contemporary man.

I'm not entirely sure I understand or agree with what was said. What exactly is he saying? People, when only reading books, were more individualistic? why? how?

being connected with various forms of media in the modern world does "make the world smaller" sure... but why do/would we act any differently to how we act to our immediate worl (town. village, household, whatever)?

Originally Posted by rememberthisusername

I'm not entirely sure I understand or agree with what was said. What exactly is he saying? People, when only reading books, were more individualistic? why? how?

being connected with various forms of media in the modern world does "make the world smaller" sure... but why do/would we act any differently to how we act to our immediate worl (town. village, household, whatever)?

Mcluhan is a bit dense and I don't know if I totally understand everything he talks about myself but if I understand him correctly he's saying that man before the time of books was connected to each other. In order to survive we concentrated all our thoughts on our tribe as a whole to keep it successful. We had no or little time to be alone with our individual Thoughts. The tribal drum he talks about is resonance. Resonance can't be pick up through sight which is the one sense that is needed to read. The book heightens the sense of sight and cuts us off form resonance of the others. We are now alone with only our individual thoughts. When you read it's one word at a time one line at a time it's all one thing at a time like an Individual. Outside of that it's all at once like the tribe. According to Mcluhan the renascence was time of great individual creativity because of the printing press. The media is now beating that tribal drum again and it has a strong effect on us all even if we can't see it. If you're still confused check out the other video's on the post they helped give me a better understanding of Mcluhan's work.

Originally Posted by Lou Sid

Mcluhan is a bit dense and I don't know if I totally understand everything he talks about myself but if I understand him correctly he's saying that man before the time of books was connected to each other. In order to survive we concentrated all our thoughts on our tribe as a whole to keep it successful. We had no or little time to be alone with our individual Thoughts. The tribal drum he talks about is resonance. Resonance can't be pick up through sight which is the one sense that is needed to read. The book heightens the sense of sight and cuts us off form resonance of the others. We are now alone with only our individual thoughts. When you read it's one word at a time one line at a time it's all one thing at a time like an Individual. Outside of that it's all at once like the tribe. According to Mcluhan the renascence was time of great individual creativity because of the printing press. The media is now beating that tribal drum again and it has a strong effect on us all even if we can't see it. If you're still confused check out the other video's on the post they helped give me a better understanding of Mcluhan's work.

I understood it the same way.

People, when only reading books, were more individualistic? why? how?

Well look at youtube communities. Mostly composed of people who get their information via television (strong visual stimuli + audio). They see flashy stylized pictures, followed by a handpicked voice of the narrator which is in a sense dramatic, full of pathos, has a convincing intonation etc. It's very easy to get wooed into certain type of thinking or meme. Just look at how dismissive those groups are of their opposites (e.g. relative morality vs objective morality). You can barely see any critical assessment of ideas rather ideas are dismissed by default since they don't fit into their system. Once in a while you see a comment which criticizes both sides and exposes both the pros and cons of the system. I bet such people do not use youtube as their primary source of information.

Resonance the beat is key, In the old days it was the people that beat that drum but now the drum beat's the people by way of media. That's why its important as to who has control of the media it can be used for or against us. Look at what's happening now we are kept on the same resonant frequency. A lot of movies, T.V. and other media are all over the place fast cuts, multiple angels at once, sampling, to name a few. Its to keep us from focusing on one thought. That would lead to pattern recognition and in search for more complex patters like Mcluhan points out. Complex patters that the media will not provide.