Content summary: Among McLuhan's many discussions, academic circles pay more attention to his classic discussion that the medium is a "message", "an extension of the human body" and "cold" and "hot" media, but less about his "media balance" theory. In fact, while McLuhan talked about every media change being an "extension of the human body," he also pointed out quite presciently: Human beings have the ability to adapt to changes in the media environment, and "the electronic revolution will restore human sensory balance." He also called this historical process "retribalization." The media environment has dynamic significance. The profoundness of McLuhan's view of media is that it discusses the impact of media on society with an ethics that transcends media technology theory and abstraction. It is based on the "big vision" of the relationship between media and people, media and social changes, and clarifies the dynamic process and significance of the media environment. He pointed out that the above-mentioned "disasters" caused by media "acculturation" are not caused by the ghost of the media, but are the consequences of people's lack of "media experience" and their understanding of the "nature of the new environment."
About the author:
Among McLuhan's many discussions, academic circles pay more attention to his classic discussion that the medium is a "message", "an extension of the human body" and "cold" and "hot" media, but less about his "media balance" theory. In fact, while McLuhan talked about every media change being an "extension of the human body," he also pointed out quite presciently: Human beings have the ability to adapt to changes in the media environment, and "the electronic revolution will restore human sensory balance." He also called this historical process "retribalization." The above discussion still has implications for understanding the media situation in today’s new media era.
Learn to accept the dramatic changes in the media environment
Since the Frankfurt "Critical School", most Western scholars have viewed the functions of mass media with negative value judgments. They believe that the rapid development of mass media has not actually expanded human spiritual space, but has made human "spiritual circle" increasingly narrow and suffocating. In his book "The One-Dimensional Man", Marcuse fully discussed the "one-dimensional" thoughts and behaviors caused by mass communication and the cultural industry. He tried to show that as a means of indoctrination and manipulation, the mass media not only created a false demand, but also caused people to form common "one-dimensional" thoughts and behaviors in this "falseness".
Some humanities scholars have deep worries and reflections on the crisis caused by mass media, but they are somewhat helpless because they are surrounded by the huge shadow of high technology and media. Therefore, they blame all sins on the crisis caused by technology on mass media.
In fact, the changes in the social environment brought about by the media are "neutral" in terms of social ethics. The essence of the problem is that we should fully understand the potential mechanisms of the impact of technology and media on human psychology, and learn to feel and respond. In a media interview in 1969, McLuhan pointed out that great changes in the "media environment" have had a potential impact on human psychology, and pointed out how people should respond: "In the past, people's experience of the impact of the media was gradual, which enabled people and society to absorb and mitigate the impact of this impact to a certain extent. Today, in the instantaneous communication In the electronic age, electronic media constitute a global, almost instantaneous transformation of culture, values, and attitudes. This upheaval creates great pain and a loss of identity. Only by understanding the revolutionary transformations caused by new media can we predict and control such changes. But if we continue to indulge in self-induction, we will be enslaved to them."
