Friday, November 2, 2007

Was talking to a customer yesterday, and he asked me if kids were reading comics. I told him, mostly not, that they seemed to prefer playing videogames, and that they seemed to want to "be Spider-man, not read about Spider-man."

Then I mentioned that the 'medium is the message.'

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you heard of Marshall McLuhan?"

Hard to realize that such a pop icon of my generation would be simply forgotten a generation later.

So I Wikipedia'd up the name, and came up with this description of what I was talking about. Mainly, I'm reprinting it, because of the prominence of comics. I probably learned about McLuhan between the times I read comics (as a kid and as an adult), so I didn't remember that he made comics a cornerstone of his theories.

Also the description leaves it up to the current generation to decide if video or online games are hot or cool media. I'd guess, by the definition, that video games would be cool, just like comics. But I still think they work on a different part of the brain -- the medium is the message.

The other thing that occurs to me, is that the bigger the T.V.'s and the more high-def, the closer they become to immersive media, or 'hot' media. Turn off the lights and watch a high definition 64" screen from eight feet away, and it would sure feel like a movie.

To wit:

"Hot" and "cool" media

McLuhan also claimed in the first part of Understanding Media, that different media invite different degrees of participation on the part of a person who chooses to consume a medium. Some media, like the movies, enhance one single sense, in this case vision, in such a manner that a person does not need to exert much effort in filling in the details of a movie image. McLuhan contrasted this with TV, which he claimed requires more effort on the part of viewer to determine meaning, and comics, which due to their minimal presentation of visual detail require a high degree of effort to fill in details that the cartoonist may have intended to portray. A movie is thus said by McLuhan to be "hot", intensifying one single sense "high definition", demanding a viewer's attention, and a comic book to be "cool" and "low definition", requiring much more conscious participation by the reader to extract value

End Quote.

Fun stuff to think about to those of you who have never been exposed to his theories.

McLuhan is also responsible for the phrase "global village." All thought up 30 and 40 years ago.

He was adopted as the patron saint of Wired Magazine in it's first few years.

10 comments:

dkgoodman said...

Don't know why, but whenever I think of McLuhan, I also think of Korzybski ("the map is not the territory") and also Buckminster Fuller. I guess they were all visionaries from about the same generation.

Duncan McGeary said...

So now I'll have to Wiki Korzybski....

Duncan McGeary said...

To wit:

"The essence of Korzybski's work was the view that human beings are limited in what they know by (1) the structure of their nervous systems, and (2) the structure of their languages. Human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through their "abstractions" (nonverbal impressions or "gleanings" derived from the nervous system, and verbal indicators expressed and derived from language). Sometimes our perceptions and our languages actually mislead us as to the "facts" with which we must deal. Our understanding of what is going on sometimes lacks similarity of structure with what is actually going on. He stressed training in awareness of abstracting, using techniques that he had derived from his study of mathematics and science. He called this awareness, this goal of his system, "consciousness of abstracting." His system included modifying the way we approach the world, e.g., with an attitude of "I don't know; let's see," to better discover or reflect its realities as shown by modern science. One of these techniques involved becoming inwardly and outwardly quiet, an experience that he called, "silence on the objective levels."

Cool. That "I don't know; let's see," fits right in with my Unitarian background.

Duncan McGeary said...

Can one overuse Wiki. It's a miracle of the ages to someone like me.

Unitarian:

To wit:

Historically, they have encouraged non-dogmatic views of God, Jesus, the world and purpose of life as revealed through reason, scholarship, science, philosophy, scripture and other prophets and religions. They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Although there is flexibility in the nuances of belief or basic truths for the individual Unitarian Christian, general principles of faith have been recognized as a way to bind the group in some commonality. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings. Liberal Unitarians value a secular society in which government stays out of religious affairs.

Unitarians are not to be confused with members of the Unity Church.

Duncan McGeary said...

I don't discuss religion on this blog; but this is the basis of my philosophy toward life. So, just to lay it out.

I promise to stay away from it in the future!

dkgoodman said...

I was also fascinated by who he influenced:

"Other individuals influenced by Korzybski include Kenneth Burke, William S. Burroughs, Frank Herbert, Albert Ellis, Gregory Bateson, Buckminster Fuller, Douglas Engelbart, Stuart Chase, Alvin Toffler, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, A. E. van Vogt, Robert Anton Wilson, entertainer Steve Allen, and Tommy Hall (lyricist for the 13th Floor Elevators); and scientists such as William Alanson White (psychiatry), physicist P. W. Bridgman, and researcher W. Horsley Gantt (a former student and colleague of Pavlov)."

Some of my favorite (and one least favorite) authors are in there.

In any choice between faith and science, I will almost always go with science. I suppose my passion for facts explains my interests in journalism and engineering and my distaste for lawyers and politicians. :)

Duncan McGeary said...

What a list! \

Like you said, some of the best and some of the worst.

My attitude toward politicians is: someone has to do it.

I've never has any problem with mixing science and faith, even if they contradict each other.

I just means that I haven't figured it out yet.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

and one least favorite

We're safe in the KNOWLEDGE it is NOT the venerable L RON!

Bewert said...

That Korzybski info is interesting stuff. The part about language being a limiting factor is one of the reasons English is becoming the world's language--it simply is such a polyglot, while being based on precepts behind many European languages, that it can describe things that other languages simply don't have words for. We readily make up words or add them from other languages if necessary.

Going to have to read a little more about him.

FWIW, what do you think of the magnanimous buyout offer from Kuratek and Co.? I keep waiting for IHTBYB to post a rant.

Bend--a beautiful place to serve time.

Anonymous said...

Bend--a beautiful place to serve time.

*

That's Bends new mantra.

Out with...

"The best resort on the west coast [ dva/vcb slogan ]"

Today's Oregonian for Sunday, is out on Net. It's over for Bend four page story of how Bend has economically collapsed. Segment are on bendbubble2.blogspot.com thread, the BULL has to make a move now, its official.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/119405852663970.xml&coll=7