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Laura Krasovska
Tallinn University Baltic Film and Media School
Media Culture and Criticism
17.10.2006.
In his works, Marshall McLuhan outlined his vision of the changes that were
forms of media transform our experience of ourselves and our society, and this
influence is ultimately more important than the content that is transmitted in its
number of terms and different phrases to support his main argument “The Medium is
The Message”. These terms and phrases have become a crucial part of the common
vocabulary nowadays in order to dispute about the media and the society. One of such
microscopic issues, with the impact of the media on our senses is the notion of the
extensions of man. McLuhan suggested that “The use of any kind of medium or
extension of man alters the patterns of interdependence among people, as it alters the
ratios among our senses.” (Understanding Media) In other words, all technologies are
extensions of our powers and capabilities. Our technologies are means of enhancing
or amplifying a particular function that has use to us - whether for good or for bad
a way that extends the range of the human body and mind in a way that is new. A
knife might be an extension of the hand. The automobile then can be an extension of
the feet because it allows man to travel almost everywhere in the same way as the
feet, only this kind of traveling is faster and includes more comfort. In addition, this
a way that they will do a great deal to ensure that after a hard work they will be able
to reap the fruits of their work. This might be one of the driving forces for new media
becomes a combination of all our senses and their extensions together. This helps
people to get a line of different issues. In this sense, electronic media open up new
extensions of our brains. Writing is an extension of speech and of memory. The use of
the phone makes previous ways of communications, such as letters, smoking signals
and pigeons, obsolete. The new world opens for everyone taking part into media
developments. The extensions save time. To sum up, it seems that these extensions
enable people to get instant access to different information and other media products
On the other hand, there are drawbacks of the concept of extensions as well.
People are so excited about the invention and use it more often and they do not want
to be reminded of its drawback, such as air pollution. This extension amputates the
wish to walk on foot. In the context of media, for example, the use of telephone might
be considered as the extension of the voice, but it amputates the option of face-to face
discussions. There is no innovation that people have this need of togetherness and
community. If one looks at the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is clear that the needs
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of self actualization, esteem and belonging are the ones associated with the
psychological issues. Television culture amputates, many of the close ties of family
life based on oral communication that is a part of this psychological need. When the
television is turned on, everyone watches it. In order to hear and understand the
content of it, nobody speaks and there is a relative silence in “this side of the
encoding speech that readers of it become dependent on the eye; the resources of the
ear, and therefore of the memory, are reduced. Such examples of an extension having
the effect of amputating some other extension can be found a long time ago discussed
in Plato’s dialog “Phaedrus”. As the main speaker of Plato’s dialogs, Socrates “tells a
story about the invention of arts and technologies, including writing. In the story
Egyptian King Ammon disputes the claim made by a god named Theuth that, writing
‘is a branch of learning that will make the people of Egypt wiser and improve their
if men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease
external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but
for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but
only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching
them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they
know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of
McLuhan's career was the task of understanding the effects of technology, as it was
related to the culture of media, and how this affected human beings and their relations
with one another in communities. A number of statements supporting the idea of “The
Medium is The Message” have been issued. In analyzing the concept of the
extensions of man, one must look critically at the positive as well as the negative side
of it. The extensions of man have the positive shape in terms of the new, developed
possibilities they might provide. They are like peripheral extremities for a human
being to manage more in nowadays life, when time is money. On the other hand,
amputating or modifying some other extension, which can cause the lack of
Works Cited
Davis, Dennis K.,Ph.D., Stanely J. Baran, Ph.D. Mass Communication Theory , Third