Week 5: Media Education

Jenkins brings up a very valid point that with the changes that technology brings to our world – socially, culturally, politically, etc. – people need to make adjustments accordingly.  This theme and cultural issue is present throughout McLuhan’s lecture as he states, “Mine is a transformation theory, how people are changed by the instruments they employ.”  I certainly agree with this statement.  People are directly affected by the tools they use on a daily basis.  These tools change rapidly with technology, and those changes are transferred onto the users, as well.  People really do not have a choice with that.  Different technologies require different skills sets.  If people do not adapt and change themselves, they will struggle to keep up with the ever-changing and transforming world.  These new technologies also have so much to offer and ways to better and improve the way people do things.  This also provides incentive for people to want to keep up with the changes. 

This is not to say that keeping up the changes is always easy. McLuhan brings up the interesting point in his lecture is how we tend to see effects before causes.  He states, "Another strange circumstance attending all discovery and all investigation is that the effects come before the causes."  I think that this speaks volumes about how sometimes the changes in technology and new media literacies happens so quickly, we may not always see it coming, be ready for the changes, or even know where they come from.  

McLuhan, M. Living in an acoustic world. (PDF Document). Retrieved from http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/media/mcluhan_pdf_6_JUkCEo0.pdf