Marshall McLuhan
Media theorist (1911 to 1980) whose Understanding Media (1964) argued that "the medium is the message": a technology's effect on human senses and society matters more than its content.
Marshall McLuhan did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsThe effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Their wordsToday, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Their wordsThe serious artist is the only person able to encounter technology with impunity, just because he is an expert aware of the changes in sense perception.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Their wordsA hot medium is one that extends one single sense in "high definition."
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsIn a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Their wordsThe artist is the man in any field, scientific or humanistic, who grasps the implications of his actions and of new knowledge in his own time.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Their wordsGames are popular art, collective, social reactions to the main drive or action of any culture.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book
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Our reading
Their wordsThe electric light is pure information.
↗Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New American Library, 1964)archive.org All 8 from this book