 The medium is the message (e.g.

text messages/ voice call)

 The acoustic environment fosters more passion more spontaneity in the world of surround
sound, everything is more immediate, more present and more actual.

Tribal age Meaning of Hearing is Communal Immediate Doesn’t Words lack Hearing
words is believing point of view/ and alive allow materiality (ear)
context against only in the detached
embedded privatization. moment analysis
(group
members)
Literary Meaning of Hearing is Private Read and Detached Materiality Seeing
age words is no longer “point of reread analysis of words (eye)
detached trustworthy, view” possible
from the “seeing in possible.
context writing” (individuals),
becomes (independent
proof thinkers)

 Whatever was in the literary age, it extended in the printing age.

 Electronic age:
o Retribalizing the human race, sound and touch are more important than sight.
o Global village: brings us in touch with everyone, everywhere, instantaneously.
o Privacy is either a luxury or a curse of the past. (In a society where technology is
pervasive and personal information is easily accessible, individuals who can afford
advanced privacy measures or live in exclusive, secluded environments may
experience privacy as a luxury. People might live in a state of constant visibility,
with their activities and interactions monitored by both the government and private
entities.)
o “The new tribalism is one where everyone’s business is everyone else’s, where all
are somewhat testy”. (The constant exposure to the business of others,
 coupled with the potential for increased scrutiny and judgment, could

contribute to an atmosphere of heightened sensitivity and conflict.)

 Digital age: the mass age of electronic media is becoming increasingly personalized.
Instead of one unified electronic tribe, a growing number of digital tribes are forming.
Digital tribes forming around the most specialized ideas, beliefs, values, interests and
fetishes.

 Postman:
o Calls technology a Faustian Bargain (doctor Faustus): bargain with the devil.
o Technology giveth and technology taketh away, a technology sometimes creates
more than it destroys, sometimes it destroys more than it creates but is never one-
sided.
 Postman urged us to ask three question about new technology:
o What is the problem to which this technology is the solution?
o Whose problem is it, actually?
o If there is a legitimate problem to be solved, what other problems will be created
by my using this technology?
 McLuhan’s historical analysis has heightened the awareness of the possible cultural effects
of new media technology. No one has raised media consciousness to the level achieved by
McLuhan with his catchy statements and dramatic metaphors.