Whenever I think of Marshall McLuhan I can’t help but also think of his cameo in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in which he suddenly appears to backup Allen’s character, who is critiquing the man standing behind him as someone who does not truly understand McLuhan’s theories. And while quoting McLuhan at parties might have its certain advantages because it makes you sound both smart and a prick at the same time, there is something to be said about the fact that you can still quote McLuhan at a party and actually still be relevant. Considering that he wrote Understanding Media at a time when the television was just beginning to emerge and years before the internet revolution, it was truly amazing for McLuhan to foresee the coming of the “global village” and the consequences of technology on our society, namely the impacts of the extensions of man.

The main premise of his book is the seminal statement “the medium is the message.”  here we are to understand that it is the impacts of technology–the environment that is changed by the emergence of any new innovation–that is and of itself the medium and the message, not the technology itself.  the content of technology is not necessarily a message that you and i might read as if we read a book.  but it is a content that carries a message of change.  he uses the example of the electric light bulb as a prime example in which while a light bulb’s content is not something you can read, but its message is actually the fact that it has now affected the way in which we work, play, and live.  our sense of time and scale has changed because we now have the ability to do continue our activities in once dark places and moments in time.

whether or not is it is any less important to understand media in today’s society as opposed to a little over 50 years ago, is not all-together clear.  what is clear is how much we have progressed towards this new sense of immediate urgency and environment in which we are now constantly changing based on new technologies.  I am consumed like most people, with the rush of daily work, living, and projects that fill a never-ending void but all with very apparent deadlines.  It has been surmised that technology and media will one day completely fix these time pressures on our behalf.  Through the introduction of instantaneous communication (e-mail, video conferencing, etc.), the work force is now free to continue at a pace that is no longer governed by physical limitations but as an indefatigable machine that produces at a continuous, unfailing rate.  No wonder that devices like the PDA and other electronic calendars are some of the most popular items on the market today.  Our culture has been bred to beat time; whereas, the only way how is to fulfill a seeemingly infinite number of tasks in a very finite amount of time.   McLuhan writes, “Ours is a brand—new world of allatonceness.  ‘Time’ has ceased, ‘space’ has vanished.  We now live in a global village…a simultaneous happening.”

With the advent of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, people are able to communicate in a way that was never before available.  Friends and colleagues long fallen out of touch, now keep tabs on each other with the click of a button rather than with time-consuming conversations.  But as I wonder about the ease in which communication has been facilitated, I also question the times this week I have sent colleagues e-mails or instant messages rather than have walked over to their desk or called to deliver my message in person.  The myth being perpetuated by the belief that this immediate, instantaneous solution is more efficient and therefore better than doing things in a non-instantaneous or inferior manner.  When it comes to electronic communication, waiting is perceived as a downfall; and while we are at the mercy of various bandwidth support and download times, we forget to see that it could be our contribution as innovators and designers to emphasize the importance of human interaction.

And as we try to navigate our way through an increasingly convoluted environment, I find that the most valuable contributions to great ideas and projects are not necessarily solutions to complex technologies, but of our contributions as complex individuals.  Ultimately, we experience life emotionally.  These feelings can be intangible, volatile, and perhaps even unreasonable, but they drive us to coexist in a world of greater pursuits.  We would not believe that we live in a world where our interactions are transmitted purely through hidden synapses and silent, transmission waves.  Our thoughts, complicated and undefinable, require a more vast and delicate handling.  so as we continue to hurtle towards a future defined by our technological extensions, we must remember what it is that we are extending–our thoughts, emotions, memories–these are the messages of who we are as humans.