From "The Extension of Man" to "Extending Marshall McLuhan"

I guess ill start by saying that this book is definitely going to be complex and harder to understand than the previous reading assignments. Maybe I am jumping the gun with this statement based solely on the first few chapter but it seems that because the content directly involves both McLuhan's theories and Logan's theories of how UM would translate to the development of media, the reading calls for more focus as well as prior understanding and analysis of the topics. Logan addresses this issue by organizing the book similarly to a text book with a clear table of content, appendix, and sections within each chapter. Logan expresses that the reader is meant to treat the linear text the way you would a text with hyperlinks by referring to other sections based on parenthesis with references that are used throughout the book. This method seems to have its pros and cons. Although it may be necessary for this topic, it also leads to a less coherent and sometimes confusing effect on the reader.

Looking now into the content of the first few chapter, Logan introduces his work by providing a better understanding of both McLuhan and other communication scholars of the time, some who did not seem to have the same ideas. It also seemed that many of the people who studied McLuhan's theories weren't able to grasp the ideas that he intended (or that Logan believed he intended) properly. 

Much of the information present in the chapters 2-5 are generally related to one of McLuhan's main concepts and title of his work "the extension of man" referring to the notion that media and technologies increase and extend the powers of man. This simplified description encompasses the majority of McLuhan theories including medias effect on society as well as societies effect on media. Within this weeks reading assignment Logan touches upon and provides a better understanding of the development of Media using the 5 communication ages along with a introduction into "new media" and how it has played out in terms of McLuhan's studies and predictions. 

UNDERSTANDING NEW MEDIA (CHAPTERS 1-7 & APPENDIX I.)

Robert K. Logan’s book, “Understanding New Media” is about understanding how new media is changing our world. It also about how new media is impacting the older media that McLuhan studied. There is a lot to write about on this book but I will concentrate on what I believe is the most interesting part and that is McLuhan’s methodology. “There was method in his madness.”

Technology as extensions of the body and media as extensions of the psyche.

McLuhan believed that media and technology enhance human functions therefore they are regarded as extensions of our being. This statement is actually quite true. Every day I see people with their cellphones in their hands (literally an extension of their body). Media has also affected our psyche. We are told through advertising and marketing that we need the newest iPhone or iPod that is coming out. We don’t want to be the only ones that don’t have them. I personally don’t buy into that type of advertising. I am perfectly fine with my Android phone that is a few years old or my iPod Nano that is not brand new. What gets me is, god-forbid I leave my phone at home when I am out, I panic. I feel like I need my phone in case someone is trying to reach me or in case of an emergency. Society and the media have made me feel that way. When I was growing up, there were no cell phones, and I did just fine. If there was an emergency, people would just use a payphone. Now with the invention of cellphones, I haven’t seen any payphones in quite a while.

Media as living vortices of power.

McLuhan believed that media and technology play a dynamic role in economics, politics, society, and culture. Once again, McLuhan is right on the money. The 2008 Barack Obama Presidential campaign made history.  Not only was Obama the first African American to be elected president, but he was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. For example, Obama logged twice as many Facebook “Likes” and nearly 20 times as many re-tweets as Romney.  With his existing social media base and spreadable content, Obama had far superior reach. This shows the importance of how social media influences politics as well as the economy, society, and culture.

The content of any new medium is another older medium.

McLuhan believed that when a medium first appears, it uses the content of another medium exclusively for its content until users have learned to exploit the new medium to develop forms of expression. When I read this, I thought of Myspace. Remember how popular Myspace was? It was huge! There was even a song that came out, called “The Myspace Song.” Now, Facebook has come along and demolished Myspace. Facebook is what’s “in” right now until the next thing comes along. It is so interesting to see how popular a website can become overnight to being replaced by another website and therefore, disappearing soon after. It only goes to show that nothing stays around forever. As popular as Facebook is right now, I am curious to see what will eventually  take over.  

In chapters 6-10 Levinson makes a multitude of good points when discussing blogging as it pertains to today’s technology. Blogging has become very popular in the past couple of years; it has even gone mainstream in amongst young people. Sights like Tumblr and Blogger allow users to speak their minds in a multitude of ways. Users can be the acting editor of a blog while remaining anonymous; users can communicate and interact with a cyber community; etc. The internet has made the world the size of a marble, figuratively speaking of course, and with that people are able to do things on communicative level. These chapters in someways point out how we conduct ourselves on new media; how we are able to adapt and develop a different persona from our daily physical selves. This of course can lead to other topics regarding new media, such as social networking sites and their effects on human social behavior; or how business ethics have changed since the birth of social media. 

The Varieties of Cyberspace

 I was initially a bit confused with the different words cybertime, virtual time, cyberspace and so on. But when I thought about it in terms of a computer it made much more sense. As people we associate time to a clock. Now computers have made us think about new phenomenon as they are devices that perform tasks faster than humans. When we think about space it is a physical area or a measurable distance, similarly computers call this cyberspace. The time that the computers take to process, analyze, interpret and execute commands comes under cybertime. Also computers are the devices that get people into a different world, enabling them to be in a different state of mind and place. The network of the computers is cyberspace. This is a non-physical space but existent in the computer world known as paraspace a subdivision under the first level of cyberspace called zero-order cyberspace. Virtual communication is encouraged by cyberspace like Vidhi says.  Cyberspace is based on the physical, perceptual and conceptual aspect of computers and users.

Windows and Mirrors

I really liked the perspective that the book talks about. Computers are a world wide used medium now!! The difference in perspectives in the book id that of windows and mirrors; windows being something that you look through and mirrors being a reflection of an image. Coincidently Windows is also the name chosen by a Microsoft designer for their product. Applying the meaning of windows, which is to see through, to computers implies that the computer is a medium, which enable the user to easily get information, i.e transparency. The mirror is the impact that computers have on the user as they continue to use the interface. I thought that this was a great analogy and had a lot of depth in the meaning rather than just the superficial meaning of the 2 words.

The read of the chapters can easily be associated with, just what the computer aims to do with the user. As I have used a computer before, I was able to associate with the 3 main points of the book “(1) the computer has become a new medium, a new set of media forms; (2) to design a digital artifact is to design an experience; and (3) digital design should not try to be invisible”. It also talks about connecting art and being able to create masterpieces via the computer

L.Johnson

Leah Johnson Chapters 1-7 Robert Logan first introduces us to the concepts of new media and old media as he defines them clearly and help us make the distinction between the two. The ever changing and evolving medias are a new cultural environment society is consumed in. Time simply helps us loose interest. Old media such as television and radio, etc., was our “new media” of earlier times. We have never seen such technologies, and different medias in the past so this was fascinating and as time went on and these new medias and technologies emerged, old media was no longer of special fascination. Logan states that McLuhan says the user is the content. When It comes to new media I agree with this statement 100%. New media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumlbr, etc, the users create this world, based off of their own content. Twitter is the best example of this, all of the content floods each users timeline and creates the world of Twitter. But can these users be considered professionals or employees? It seems interesting that each user keeps each of these sites going without any recognition or pay. Do the users care that they are putting in probably about 12 hours a day, on these networks that are going because of their content? I find this to be an interesting topic that should be explored. Maybe if specific users are bringing in enough people they receive a reward. This should be considerable. These chapters gave different additional insights on media ecological approaches and theories from Marshall McLuhan.

Windows and mirrors (4-6)

Windows and mirrors (4-6)

People are always made happy by the things they see. If what we see is good to us then we get interested and attracted to it and that is why I was fascinated by reading in these three chapters. The introduction of the book drives my imagination to know more and keep reading. The book inspired people to be very creative, but not to an extent that it becomes unreal.

David Botler and Diane Gromola’s discussion in these chapters makes us think of how we can make new online media better for people out there. As I mentioned before, people are attracted to what looks good to the eye. If a person is visiting a website and it is not attractive, then it is likely they will close it and look for another one. The authors have brought this point up and I totally agree with them. I like the way the authors also describe different technologies such as Fake shop and T-garden which all provide different levels of user experience. This is very good as it presents people with better knowledge in what they are reading.

David Botler and Diane Gromola started the first three chapters of this book with a boom and have sure continued to amaze me. There are so many things I used online without knowing what they were and this book has allowed me to understand that. These three chapters continue to keep my interest in this book and can’t wait to explore the coming three chapters.