Marshall McLuhan's theory of media as extensions of human senses

Marshall McLuhan

Media and the Human Senses

Marshall McLuhan contends that all media are extensions of the human senses. True to form, all media presented whether print, audio, visual, electronic or other are nothing more than expansions of our perceptions of the world in one form or another. Media provides the medium through which mankind can engage the senses, explore the world, interpret reality and communicate with mankind. Through use of media including television, video and electronic media mankind can interpret his experiences, create a unique identity, engage in social order and develop social rules and institutions that make living possible and acceptable.

In this paper the author provide an analysis of how various forms of the media act as a medium through which sensory perception is maximized and fully utilized. The author will explain how the media is as important as other extensions of the senses including the arms, eyes and ears. The author will show how media is a tool or medium through which mankind defines social order and interprets his reality or existence.

The author will also demonstrate how varying forms of media are vital to mankind's existence, to maintaining the social order and to facilitating communication and networking among mankind. The media is an important tool through which people learn to express and communicate themselves. The media works synergistically with the other senses to facilitate learning and living. To live without various media agents would be much like living life without ones vital senses. Life would prove meaningless and impossible to interpret. These ideas and more are explored in greater depth below.

Analysis

Media is an extension of the human mind or cognitive thought processes. McLuhan argues that mass media is an extension specifically of the central nervous system, where technology has enabled simulation of consciousness extending mankind's consciousness and influence and extending our senses purely through media. Via technology mankind can now express himself in new ways using new tools and modes of communication. Technology has produced video, internet technology and television. All three forms of media enable ma to distance himself from tangible objects and instead more abstract or intangible thought processes that are nonetheless vital to one's existence.

To understand how media impacts the human senses and is in effect an extension of these senses one must first understand what sense are and how they affect human identity and development. From early on most people learn that the senses include our ability to hear, touch, see, taste and smell things (Geurts, 2002). What many people fail to comprehend or realize however, until oftentimes much later in life, is that the human senses are the way that our bodies collect, gather and interpret information about the world and about one's identity, beliefs and feelings (Geurts, 00). The senses provide a means through which one can travel outside of one's own body to collect and interpret the experiences of others. These collections of experiences and events are then translated and interpreted by the individual that is 'sensing' or feeling. Taste, touch, smell and hearing are important senses, but they do not operate in and of themselves. We use a variety of tools to facilitate the sensory process. For example, our hands provide us the tools necessary to engage in tactile or touch learning. Our eyes provide us the ability to engage in visual learning and stimulation. This stimulation helps us interpret every day events, our life and helps us shape our identities.

In the same way an arm or a leg is an extension of our senses, so too is the media. Whether in the form of television, radio, video or digital media, human beings use media as a tool through which they can compare, document and interpret various experiences and interactions. The media provides a tool through which people can learn, experience, network, grow and interpret events. The media does this in varying ways. Television and video for example provide different sensory enhancement than say digital media, in the same way our ears provide us different sensory experiences than our eyes. One can even go as far as to argue that the media is in fact a more comprehensive tool or extension of our senses than our basic body parts. The media is capable of engaging multiple senses at once, enhancing our interpretation and experience of given events or occurrences. Media is in fact a tool through which mankind can maximize sensory experience and use this experience to grow, learn, prosper and develop internally and externally. Media creates according to some, a balance of the human senses, when used correctly.

Media is nothing more than a medium whereby people have the ability to express conscious thought, creative processes, feelings, decisions and other internal thought processes. Researchers have long sought to explore how the human senses interact and influence media practices (Wellman, et. al, 1996; Walther, 1996; Anderson, 1996). Studies suggest that media is nothing more than a medium through which social structures are constructed, debated and assimilated into daily activity (Reid, 1995; Ito, 1996). Through media like television and video for example human beings can pull together varying frames of reference helping to create and share ideas that become less ambiguous and more concrete or real.

Media provides mankind an opportunity to use his senses to personalize communications, elicit feedback and to share basic social functions with others. Television and video provide the same sensory stimulation that face-to-face interaction would. People can demonstrate nonverbal cues including gestures, eye contact, facial expressions using visual stimulus present in television and video. Digital media often presents a unique challenge in this respect, providing mankind the ability to create new extensions of communication but offering less in the way of non-verbal stimulus.

Digital media is becoming more and more the modus of choice for individuals desiring significant sensorial experiences and social interactions in modern society. Digital media is perhaps the most technologically advanced extension of the human senses invented at his point by mankind. Digital media is increasing in popularity, providing motivated participants the opportunity to create networks or communities online, sustaining consumers need to access and experience new forms of stimulation, communication and information (Lindlif & Shatzer, 1998).

Digital media is very different from other forms of media like the television or video, as it allows more shared learning experiences, more intercultural contact between people and allows more explicit sensory analysis and input, as one can engage all of the sense while enjoying digital media. Digital media like the Internet provides users with a form of culture symbolic of real life events and cultural experiences, providing users an outlet to express themselves in a coherent fashion despite geographical or other limitations (Lidlif & Shatzer, 1998).

Thomas Csordas argues that to understand what it is to be human one must first understand what people do to make themselves human; the answer of course is what sense and tools do we engage to determine cultural values and to determine what value we place on certain events or situations (Geurts, 200; Csordas, 1994). Our senses are a tool to help us be more human by helping us remember and determine what aspects of life are important to remember (Connerton, 1989; Damasio, 1994; Casey, 1996). The media is an extension of our senses that help create a general picture of social interaction that is both acceptable to us and one that we eagerly desire to participate in (Meyrowitz, 1985). People consistently use tools including their hands, feet, computer, television to change their outlook, roles, perceptive experiences, methods of learning and methods of adhering to conventional wisdoms or behavior (Meyrowitz, 1985). Social order is largely maintained by people's ability to adjust to changing rules, role, social conditions and social institutions. Through digital media, television, radio and video people define their role, learn about changing rules, change their role, uncover social conditions and defy or relate to social institutions.

The media is a tool that people can use to express their malcontent, their satisfaction or continuing needs with respect to the social order and way that their life or life in generally is being managed. Behavior may change and will continue to change as displayed via various forms of media. People's attitudes fore example clearly change from one television program to another, as a television program aspires to depict a certain social condition, event, institution or situation experienced by mankind but interpreted in various ways.

Media provides mankind a tool through which he can play various roles at varying points in time. Through mixed media including the television, radio, video and digital media people have the ability to change their role, performance and style or method of interaction (Meyrowitz, 1985). Media provides a way for mankind to act in public as he might otherwise act in private, incorporating subjective and personal experiences into day-to-day affairs and activities. The media provides a forum through which behaviors and segregations are differentiated and people can assess their compliance or resistance to certain universal social themes and scenarios.

As media continues to evolve so too will mankind and the manner in which society creates social order and reconstruct its relationship between the physical, mental and social. The media is as much an extension of the human senses as it is an extension of technology that enables better information flow, creation of situational behaviors and a form through which social roles can be understood and interpreted (Meyrowitz, 1985). Through the media mankind has discovered a method for transmitting, disseminating, interpreting and receiving social information. This in turn helps mankind creates his own unique identity from which he can operate and live.