Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Print created individualism and nationalism in the sixteenth century.

Print Media Individualism Nationalism Sense of Self

The alphabet (and its extension into typography) made possible the spread of the power that is knowledge, and shattered the bonds of tribal man, thus exploding him into an agglomeration of individuals. Electric writing and speed pour upon him, instantaneously and continuously, the concerns of all ot…

— Marshall McLuhan, amazon.com

Fragmentation Tribalism Writing Alphabet

Each form of transport not only carries, but translates and transforms the sender, the receiver, and the message. The use of any kind of medium or extension of man alters the patterns of interdependence among people, as it alters the ratios among our senses.

— Marshall McLuhan, amazon.com

Medium Translation Transportation

The term 'communication' has had an extensive use in connection with roads and bridges, sea routes, rivers, and canals, even before it became transformed into 'information movement' in the electric age. Perhaps there is no more suitable way of defining the character of the electric age than by first…

— Marshall McLuhan, amazon.com

Bridges Communications Electricity History Of Communication Roads

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