McLuhan in the Digital Age

One of two posts of academic jargon:

Marshall McLuhan originally wrote Understanding Media in 1964, at the juncture of a new electronic media environment (primarily television) and an older print environment.  Now, with the rapid ascendency of digital technology as the dominant media of our age, his arguments should be re-examined for their application to digital media.  The effects of new digital media strengthen and extend many of Marshall McLuhan’s argumentative probes about the development of media, in particular his arguments about electronic communication, which become more applicable with the rise of digital media like the internet.

Thoughts on McLuhan – Understanding Media

I’ll find this interesting, I don’t know how many other people will.  Here are my thoughts upon finishing Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media.

This was a strange and lucid book, and difficult to read; McLuhan’s apprehension (dislike?) for the medium of print shines through the text in its strange lucidity and obscurity.  I almost feel that McLuhan seems upset to be writing a book, and so he writes a book exactly how he wants to write it – in weird vignettes with a certain unhinged fervor.  Overall a valuable book for its opening of new theoretical avenues around an expansive notion of ‘media,’ but I found its individual conclusions about particular media forms generally off, but occasionally enlightening.