The Death of Marshall Mcluhan
So, was Johnny Carson the world's greatest entertainer, or is that a spot we often reserve for ourselves? I'd like to break it down to another level. Simple and free communication. I don't believe that the 'medium is the message'. Those of you not familiar with communication theorists are probably wondering why I seem to have chosen Patricia Arquette as the subject of my blog, but that is not what I am getting at.
With the advent of email, so many years ago, many people, including myself, began to wonder whether this would allow the lost art of letter writing to flourish in a brilliant new way. The romanticism of a bygone era was suddenly new again and we would all become young Rilkes, and love affairs would blossom with an abundance of free flowing words of love. :) LOL Need I say more. I was very dissappointed with our immediate obsession with communication short-cuts. (This is similar to how the ,once merely annoying, Starwax with their day-burn track lighting and day old newspapers forged ground into supremely evil territory when they installed drive-thrus onto their dark dens. Now we can get those $15 caramel mocha latte with soys and never talk to anyone but a box.)
Anyway, with my new found interest in taking time with writing and reading and listening, it causes me to, sort of, hate all this advacement. If things were the way they were when the Tonight Show first aired, it would be alot better around her. I think what we are really trying to communicate with each other is failing. The modern trappings of email and cell phones and instant messaging and, God forbid, even Apple products is numbing us into oblivion. We are, to quote Neil Postman, "amusing ourselves to death". And that just is not right. Prove it to yourself that a machine cannot contain your true feelings. Get some paper in your hand. Get a good pencil. And write that special person in your life a nice long letter. They will thank you for it. They might even write you one back. And what a trend that would be.
Automatic says "I can't live without my IPOD", but I say, "I can't live without my Automatic."
With the advent of email, so many years ago, many people, including myself, began to wonder whether this would allow the lost art of letter writing to flourish in a brilliant new way. The romanticism of a bygone era was suddenly new again and we would all become young Rilkes, and love affairs would blossom with an abundance of free flowing words of love. :) LOL Need I say more. I was very dissappointed with our immediate obsession with communication short-cuts. (This is similar to how the ,once merely annoying, Starwax with their day-burn track lighting and day old newspapers forged ground into supremely evil territory when they installed drive-thrus onto their dark dens. Now we can get those $15 caramel mocha latte with soys and never talk to anyone but a box.)
Anyway, with my new found interest in taking time with writing and reading and listening, it causes me to, sort of, hate all this advacement. If things were the way they were when the Tonight Show first aired, it would be alot better around her. I think what we are really trying to communicate with each other is failing. The modern trappings of email and cell phones and instant messaging and, God forbid, even Apple products is numbing us into oblivion. We are, to quote Neil Postman, "amusing ourselves to death". And that just is not right. Prove it to yourself that a machine cannot contain your true feelings. Get some paper in your hand. Get a good pencil. And write that special person in your life a nice long letter. They will thank you for it. They might even write you one back. And what a trend that would be.
Automatic says "I can't live without my IPOD", but I say, "I can't live without my Automatic."
posted by The Passenger at 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
Patricia Arquette? Lower case titles? Should I be expecting a letter in the mail? How exciting!
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