"The Medium Is the Message" by Others

With the coming of the new age there has been a great development in the technology for knowledge and learning. From the origination of the computer to the creation of the Internet, a shift has been seen in the use of print to electronic text. Marshall Macluhan’s statement “the medium is the message” relates directly to the perception of the new technology and how the message is changed due to the new media. Ted Nelson’s dream of hypertext in the mid-1960s was largely influential. These electronic writing technologies in the digital media have been a source of dispute among many academic scholars. The media theorist Neil Postman foresees the coming age with great agitation and dejection. He sees the new technology as a drastic change in the conception of learning and asserts, “it undermines the old idea of school” (Postman, 1993, p. 19). Myron Tuman, another scholar of the English language, agrees with Postman and notes how different things are towards the end of the twentieth century “with practically all aspects of print literacy… under attack” (Tuman, 1992, p. 41). Postman (1993, pp. 4-5) states, “it is a mistake to suppose that any technological innovation has a one-sided effect. Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that.” He encourages the reader to make an informed decision about the costs and beneifts of different technologies. Technology has brought about various forms of advancements in society and culture. It has helped in making things better in differents aspects of life. Along with all its benefits, there have been certain drawbacks to this development as well. One example is the level of pollution present in the air. Without the industrial revolution and the burning of fossil fuels, contamination levels in the air would be negligible compared to modern standards. That is one of the downsides to modernization but had this not occurred, society would still be stuck in rural times without amenities such as

References:  (1993).  Technopoly  (1992).  Word