Lecture 6 - Marshall Law

I found this lecture a bit more difficult to sum up into a blog entry. Marshall McLuhan has some very interesting theories. One of his theories is "The medium is the massage". He talks about how the medium is an extension to us, for example a lamp is an extension of our eyes, as it gives us more light, to help us see. Whereas the massage is the effect or impact rather than the content, using the previous example the massage of the lamp is the effect it has on the room and the person (in this case increasing visibility). Anything can be an extension, clothes extend your skin and even your house is an extension of the body (store items, protection and heating etc.) Another theory expressed in "The medium is the massage" is that youth instinctively understand the environment in which they are brought up in which is the reason for the alienation between generations.

Another theory by McLuhan is the three ages:

• Pre-Literate / Tribal Era
• Print Age
• Electric Age (Proceeded on by the digital age)

Before books or speech people would communicate out of gesture and mumbles.

Then in 1450 Johannes Gutenberg's printing press was invented.

Now we have electronic media such as telephones television computing (since 1945).