Media Predictions of Marshall McLuhan

Although the Internet did not exist when communications theorist Marshall McLuhan wrote his analysis of the then-prevailing media world, Understanding Media, his theories are clearly applicable to the developing world of the Internet and might be taken as predictions that the Internet would be the next step in the evolution of media. McLuhan set out to explain the perceptual changes experienced by users of the mass media, changes that went to the very heart of the social order and that defined how people viewed themselves in relation to their social environment. This process can be seen in the growing use of the Internet and in such specific elements as the World Wide Web, e-mail, chat rooms, and other means of connecting the home and business user to the network.

McLuhan's primary statement was, "The medium is the message." The Internet is clearly shifting our thinking in the way McLuhan notes media do. McLuhan states that "technological media are staple or natural resources" (21), and the Internet is being developed in just this manner. Connection to the Internet is more and more a necessity. This is more true for businesses than for individuals to date, but it is evident that individuals will have to be connected to the Internet as well if they are to participate fully in the social order of the future. The Internet and the World Wide Web are major forces in the American economy and in American society today, and it is believed that the world is only beginning to

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ly new. Consider just the way e-mail is changing communication. Email communication bears a resemblance to more familiar means of communication, such as a phone call, a memo, a letter, or a conversation, but email also has some unique attributes that create fundamental differences between this type of communication and the more familiar ones. First, it is a new, different, and still evolving medium, and understanding the email milieu is crucial to using it to achieve and foster effective and credible communication. Electronic mail and conferencing serves as an equalizer, or a democratization of both personal and professional communication, and a certain degree of anonymity and a crossing or ignoring of the more traditional channels of communication is allowed. Participants who are less outspoken in a traditional conversation or meeting may feel more comfortable about exploring ideas or speaking out on issues when using email, and this may also encourage the deemphasis of professional position or status as well. EMail shares the temporary, convenient, and volatile attributes of telephone or spoken conversation. At the same time, though, it can be as permanent a medium as the written word. McLuhan refers to the human b

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