Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us their unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act--the way we perceive the world. Were the Great Blackout of 1965 to have continued for half a year, there would be no doubt how electric technology shapes, works over, alters--massages--every instant of our lives.
Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage, 1967
sooo how do we escape it?
ReplyDeleteI don't think escape is our primary worry. McLuhan's life work was an attempt to stimulate the awareness an extended blackout would have provided us of our electronic environment. If knowledge is power, then knowing the effects of our mediated environments is the first step to overcoming determinism. For example, see this post: http://presidentalien.blogspot.com/2010/08/explaining-media-ecology.html
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