"The Extension of Man" to "Extending Marshall McLuhan" (Chapters 8-33)

Studying McLuhan’s theories, I have come to understand that media as an extension of ourselves. In chapters 8-33, McLuhan’s ideas are taken even further as media begins to extend itself. Most people might refer to the past 14 years as the computer age, which is a true statement in its own right. However, I believe we are entering a new age within the computer age; social media. Technological advancements like Google, the iPhone, and Twitter has changed the way we communicate and receive information completely. A better way to say this is that computers are evolving.

Video sharing functions from when YouTube was first introduced have become nearly obsolete. This is to say that, video sharing has become a standard for social networking sites. Video sharing within a social networking site has the potential to cancel out the middleman, which in this case is YouTube. Search engines have even gone as a far as tracking users’ Internet activity, in order to reflect their interest. For example, I intern at Marvel Entertainment, LLC., so a lot of my time spent on the web is related to comic books, specifically Marvel Comics. Instead of random advertisements about stuff that may be uninteresting to me, I get advertisements about Marvel Comics.

Observing functions of the Internet like this is also comical, because it has pushed advertising companies to be creative and overall pushy more than ever. Nowadays, you can’t even watch a simple YouTube video without first watching a commercial; or experiencing that feeling of being stalk, because the search engines are recording your every move just to send you advertisements from visited sites (“Internet billboards”); or email subscriptions that come in by the dozen on a daily basis.

"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.

chapters 8 -33

Chapters 8 to 33 are an elaborate expansion of McLuhan's idea that content of any media is some other medium and which previous or older medium or technology do they extend. Starting with the content, extension and cascade of the spoken word to the process of automation, the author Logan has explained the complete trail/series of the media including clothing, housing, numbers, money and so many other basic things among other complex things. The idea that really intrigued me is our return to the written form despite having moved over from traditional print format to television for almost half a decade now. The fact that we have switched back to writing, though mostly informal via messages, blogs, e-mails prove that reading/writing is here to stay no matter what new new media we are exposed to in coming times. Basically, pointing out the fact that any new media is going to enhance, obsolesce, retrieve and reverse the old media that we studied in the initial chapters of the book.

The interactive nature of the new new media has turned the new media such as television and radio into an interactive media by converging few of its characteristic features with them. I would like to quote an example of Apple TV. It's a device which when plugged in with the TV helps one to view almost anything thats online on their TV set. There are some paid channels which one can opt for and then there are some free like YouTube. I thus, no longer have to watch a video or a movie trailer on my small screen laptop. It has also made it possible for me to mirror so much other stuff on television using any Apple device. This Apple TV can be called as an extension of traditional TV which in turn is an extension of eye and the ear. The content of Apple TV is internet which in turn is the content of videos, clips, plays, movies and so on.

Another interesting thing discussed is the ads. Logan says, 'Another strategy actually employs using information gathered by TiVo, which is able to provide potential advertisers with the viewing habit of each household and guide them in launching a direct advertising campaign'. I have experienced this trend personally. A couple of months back when I was doing my research on Dunkin' Donuts, I noticed that till almost two weeks after the day I was working on this brand, every time I opened my browser, a Dunkin' ad would pop up. Similar thing happened after I did some online shopping from Banana Republic. There are so many mobile apps that monitor your location and pop up on your mobile screen flashing the message on ongoing sales or discounts in a nearby shop or restaurant.

At times, it makes me feel that nothing that I do on my mobile or laptop is anymore private and confidential. Every bit of information that I surf is secretly spied on by the service providers and the apps. New new media has exposed us to some of the best things today at the cost of losing our privacy though. However, this is relevant here because the old media and the new media helped us retain our privacy. New new media is an extension of old and new media. The things we read, the things we watched, the activities we participated in, the games we played were never out in public the way things are today with the new new media. I wonder over exposure to this interactive media will make us switch back to the passive media to retain our privacy.

Windows and mirrors (7-9)

Windows and mirrors (7-9)

David Botler and Diane Gromola bring the book into a cool ending by discussing the cultural concept surrounding humans and the use of new media. The authors manage to present this through a concept of terminal time which defines us. This book has been an amazing experience as now the authors give me a lot to think about. There is n doubt that each person is attracted to different things. This is because it is a factor of how we have been brought up and what the culture we exist in dictates.

This discussion of terminal time is really helpful because it will assist designers to be able to incorporate all the things that will most probably impress everybody who will uses the interface. This will involve the use of impressive colours, fonts, pictures and many things that readily appeals to the eye. What is more captivating is that the authors manage to stay on topic through maintaining the discussion on windows and mirrors. Terminal time turns out to be a perfect blend of windows and mirrors because it uses both reflectivity and transparency. It is what we know of the past that allows us to easily translate to the present and adopt to the future.

These chapters were very interesting to read but mostly educative. The language used was very simple and interesting and that made many people including me enjoy this book. The authors did a marvellous work and now I understand many things that are in the interfaces we interact with, and why they are the way they are.

Extending Marshall McLuhan Ch. 1-7

In Chapter 7 of Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan, Robert Logan expands on two of Marshall McLuhan’s main points -- that “media and technologies are extensions of the human body and psyche” and “the content of any new medium is an older medium” (Logan 82). Cell phones embody this first point with both body and psyche. They have become an extension of everything for us. Through texting, they have become an extension of our fingers. Through voice commands and phone calls, an extension of our voices. Most importantly, phones have become extensions of our psyche through social media and using our phones to manage relationships. 

McLuhan’s second point that Logan focuses on is also very relevant not only to old media, but to new new media today. It is easy to see that each old media used to build off of the one before it; for example, TV combined pictures from print media and sound from radio to form a new medium. However, it is probably overlooked how much new new media build off of “older” new new media. For example, the content of “friending” people that began in Myspace made its way into every new social media outlet after. Adding locations which became popular from Foursquare was added to social networks that came after. Every time a new social media site comes to light, it usually becomes and stays popular because it uses successful strategies from the “older” new new media. 

In chapters 1-7 of Robert Logan’s Understanding New Media: Extending Marshall McLuhan, we are introduced to the notion that there are two types of media, old and new. Old media of the past, of course, consisting of television, newspaper, and radio, while new media is current, comprised of a multitude of different sub-media of the Internet.

As I read the through the chapters I started to wonder if the relevance of time (old and new media) was based on the demand of the users. For example, there are new mobile-based social media that have been popping up quite frequently in the past year or so, but most are swept under the rug, because not many people use them, and therefore it is not in demand. Twitter only became popular when people got bored with Facebook, and now there’s Instagram.

One of the more interesting points that Logan made, and one that I have recently learned myself through personal experience is that social media is heavily dependent on the user. Users are able to create a feed totally based on their interests; Tumblr is a great example of this. Depending on the blogs you follow and the posts you like, Tumblr takes the initiative to give you more of what you want through suggestions.  Just to note, Netflix also has function similar to this based off the movies you watch and rate. Most of Logan’s points were relatable and familiar, given my experience with Marshall McLuhan’s teachings from a course I took last semester, Logan has just simply clarified some of Marshall’s more complex theories.

Understanding new media: Extending Marshall Mcluhan (chapters 1-7)

Looking at the title of the book, I felt that this book was going to be a tough one to read. But, the language used by the author Robert Logan is extremely easy to understand. The main focus of these initial chapters is on how each medium has evolved and extended itself over time right from the pre-verbal or nonverbal mimetic communication to orality, literacy, electric mass media and the current digital interact media or 'new media'. Logan has very clearly explained how each medium has enhanced, obsolesced, retrieved and reversed one or the other feature/characteristic of its precursor medium. The tools of Laws of Media (LOM) on page 39 helped me clear all the theoretic clutter in my mind and I could identify examples for each of them. The other important highlight of these chapters was the 14 characteristics of the new media, some of which could also be applied to the electric mass media. Most of the characteristics are very basic and which everyone is aware of not necessarily consciously. Like computer today is not just a computer, but it is also used as a TV, iPod, cellular phone and so on. Unlike electric mass media like television, today's digital medium is not passive. It is highly cognitive and interactive. Convergence is one another important characteristic that was prevalent in the former media forms as wells as the current new forms. Like instant messages (IM) and emails are the convergence of internet and post service of the past. The new media characteristics are not independent of each other. Some of them converge with each other resulting into a new media that we experience today.

Overall I felt it was quite an informative and an interesting read. Most importantly it wasn't difficult to comprehend like some of Marshall McLuhan's work.