I am continually amazed at how prescient Marshall McLuhan was about how new media would change our culture, economy and society. Listen to him in this series of clips:
Here he is, interviewed on CBC TV:
And here he is, presented by Peter Hirshberg during his TED Talk: The Web and TV, a sibling rivalry (2007) …
He saw that electronic media was going to make the world smaller and thrust our noses into each other’s lives. That knowledge would make us more aware of each other’s problems and that awareness would bring with it a large measure of responsibility. Technology would change the adolscent into a teenager: the adolescent is someone who is in life’s waiting room, whereas the teenager owns a social category all to her own – she is living her life, actively. She is spoken to directly by media, marketers and activists.
I always take great pleasure in reading McLuhan’s work. So intricate and full of meaning and insight. It never gets tired.