Theme 4: MacLuhan and changing thought processes

Marshall MacLuhan had many theories – some that seemed more plausible than others – and one in particular spoke about how media can take on the qualities of “intellectual technologies,” and that these media shape our thought processes. It appears that, for the most part, the mediums of information that we use do the bulk of thinking for us. The message that the medium might appear to give off isn’t what is truly the message. The medium itself is the message, and what this means is that social networks such a Twitter and Facebook can give you information about people without you even looking for it. You don’t have to do the work of getting to know a person by actually speaking to them and hoping for good, productive conversations. Instead, Facebook will do the work for you by combining status updates that might be mundane and repetitive on their own, but together can provide more insight into a person. These technologies are socializing for you.

This is also the case when it comes to search engines and smart phones that house search engine apps. Personally, I know that I don’t make the effort of trying to remember my own mother’s cell phone number by heart because I know it’s saved in my cell phone. My iPhone is becoming more than just an extension of my memory – it is my memory. Smart phones know all of your contacts’ information and usually have GPS systems already built-in so getting lost and having to find your way back using brain power is no longer an issue.

Google further perpetuates this change in thought processes. In Is Google Making Us Stupid the author speaks more about how people are being “dumbed down” because they have so much assistance from new technologies. The Internet does not only supply us with information, but it also shapes our thoughts. Whatever was planted to come up first in a search engine is what we feed off of and take in as legit information. Research that would have equated to hours in some library can now be done in a matter of minutes. Our minds are use to what is convenient, rather than what is substantial. Because of this, we are “loosing our capacity to concentrate,” and essentially loosing that which would make some of us intellectually elevated.

The new generation of tech-savvy people growing up now heavily rely on what technology provides. Children ages 10 and younger are taught that swiping their finger across a screen can get them an answer, and that typing in a key word will reveal the truth about something. What they are actually getting is a condensed opinion that they will unfortunately adopt as their own because their minds have not been trained to question ideas. They are taking on an old person’s way of thinking at an early age because of their limited exposure. This will also make them (and others living in this digital age) less inclined to read books. This fast-paced generation of people want instantaneous results to cater to their diminishing patience. This is a generation of multi-taskers, and so, spending time reading a book is less likely to happen now. What most people will do is skim over something and look for the highlights instead of fully absorbing something new. Why do the work when a podcast summary can do it for you?