"The Extension of Man" to "Extending Marshall McLuhan" (CHP 1-7)

In Chapters 1-7 of “Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan”, Robert Logan highlights a few of the great Marshall McLuhan’s points on media and technology. It was fascinating how Logan distinguished what he considered new media and old media. This read reminding me of the points learned in Media Ecology that expressed how media has become an extension of man. When Logan discussed social media, I believed this perfectly embodied that premise. Social media is now heavily dependent on its users. You find this in any social media whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. The other aspect of this read that I found extremely interesting was when Logan mentioned how media and technology played a huge role in politics. As I mentioned in class, I never realized how evident this point was until I read this book. In the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama not only became the first African American to be elected, but he was also the first of the candidates to effectively use social media as a campaign strategy. This is interesting because it explains how media and technology is pretty much in control of all aspects of life.