Technological Darwinism

The use of technology has become more and more abundant across the world.  People with computers, cell phones, or even a type writers have begun to explore the world through devices that are changing the way we communicate with each other without really giving it any thought.  Our thoughts mostly define instruments that we use to interact with the world as just a simple method of communicating.  Marshall McLuhan states in his book, Medium is the Massage, that "societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication."

I think that McLuhan was trying to say something very important to future generations about how our ability to take in technology is a direct affected of the device we received it.  What we categorize as important and what is not important has been in direct relation to how we came about receiving the information.  In this case, most of the information we get now-a-days is less by word of mouth and more by the electronic mediums.  We are directly affected how we view the world by the way information has arrived to us.  Having the face to face conversation and the old way of learning has been completely thrown out and we have a new respect for the reign of technology in our lives.  The social biology that is affected by what I call technological Darwinism has made us into sheltered from human interactions.  Maybe this isn't such a bad thing when you look at it.  From one point of view it does save time and money when you are able to access information through these mediums.  But on the other hand you have conditioned yourself to become impatient and lessened your attention span with quick answers.

McLuhan describes the way technology alters our way of thinking in the following passage:  "Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions.  The   extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act--the way we perceive the world."  The technological Darwinism that is taking place is beginning to change us.  So two important things that we should think about is how much we rely on technology in our lives and what will we do if electricity ceases to exist?  This reminds me of a quote from Albert Einstein saying something about technology-- "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."  Taken literally I felt that he was trying to say what McLuhan was trying to report:  the power using these mediums is damaging to ourselves as people.  Even thought we can keep in touch with people over seas or be warned about a potential disaster coming our way we are still becoming to reliant on something we shouldn't.  Destroying and unlearning all that we have come to learn as people is setting us back.

I sometimes see this social disorder in myself.  I fidget with discomfort when I'm surrounded by people on the MUNI and this is because I rarely expose myself to the public in the masses.  I have come very comfortable with my pod of a room and used my laptop to communicate with the world.  Maybe its comfort of being at home or just laziness but the sense of a safe sheltered place is something I like to constantly feed myself with and is usually accompanied with some sort technology that allows me to interact with people not in my room.  I'm not saying that I don't have day to day interactions with people I live with or with people in general but I could see how technology could impair ones ability to communicate at ease and interact at ease.  When you are face to face with a real person there is definitely a kind of chemical reaction that happens within you that you don't get from technology or any of its mediums (debatable).  Maybe I am just shy but the thought of technology helping me hide myself from the world isn't necessarily something I should rule out as a side effect to my self sheltering.  I could relate to the text in that way.  It is easy to get used to the electronic devices we use to interact with the rest of the world.

McLuhan thinks of the many aspects in which technology touches the many relationships we have in our lives.  One thought points to our interactions and how it is affected by technology in the lines of being raised by a collective world rather by parents.  "Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts.  Now all the world's a sage."  I know he probably didn't mean this in the literal context (actually thinking about the copy right date he probably did) when he was talking about two parents but I do see how raising a child and building character within that child has so many more factors now than before.  If a child is hurt or being taught a lesson that child may vent online or to friends.  Those friend's opinions or thoughts are put into the memory bank as a something that can be used to help solve problems in which the parents and the child is having.  So in conclusion, I would say that McLuhan definitely had some very insightful thoughts to technology in modern day life.