Hendonblog

If I understand McLuhan correctly, electronic media change the way we experience the world. We get beyond sequential, linear thinking and restore an earlier, almost mythical, way of dealing with the world but at an enhanced level. We recover the tribal and move toward a global village. I am ambivalent about this. I think I can accept the idea that through electronic media we experience reality in a way that is different. Where I have doubts is with the global village idea or that there is emerging one world tribe. Is it really one tribe? Often what we see is people using blogs or online sources just to get information that falls within a perspective we already have. Given their power such media may make even more divided tribes. Granted, McLuhan sees his one world reality as “diverse and discontinuous.” I think the trick is finding ways to link self-selected tribes together. Just because we can talk to anyone in world almost immediately does not mean that we will. This is not entirely a new condition. It is just that powerful tools can make existing tendencies stronger. There is a good thing in the WEB in that we change talk to people from completely different cultural backgrounds. I guess my conclusion is that we as educators need to encourage our students to culturally expansive exchanges to avoid a narrow versiion of tribalism.

On a personal note I have to say that I still feel like an alien in the new world. I was not born in it. I have spent over fifty years in a book (Gutenbreg) world. I cannot and do not want to leave it entirely. I take some encouragement from the model of Homer and the Bible. There oral tradition became written tradition. Maybe something analogous can happen as we move forward. I would buy a Kindl if I had a few extra bucks.