McLuhan, digital addiction, Second Life

Herbert Marshall McLuhan may be best known as the creator of the expression, "the medium is the message." He was a communication theorist of the highest order, a twisted humorist and a media darling. That doesn't mean that he's remembered fondly in all circles.

Ask any class of communication students what they know about McLuhan. The answers might not fill a thimble.

His work isn't easy to read and can be a chore to teach, but fans of his (myself included) suspect that he has much to offer our Internet-rich lives.

McLuhan would have enjoyed Second Life. Like a comic book, it's what he would have called a "cool" medium - "low definition." The act of participating in SL requires the human mind to fill in low-res or blank spaces. It requires imagination. The active, conscious participation of an SL user - even in something as elementary as the perception of "life" in SL - binds the user to the medium via the brain.

McLuhan might have had a warning for SL as well. In his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (and other writings), he wrote of the multiple effects of using tools - the effects on the user. If a medium extends a person - as the Internet might be seen as an extension of the human eyes (to see things from afar), mouth (to communicate from afar), and hands (to cause effects from afar) - it can also cripple the person who one day lacks that medium.

Consider for a moment, the bow. It extends the body, allowing a person to reach out and obtain food. The gun functions similarly. So too, the grocery store. If grocery stores vanished today, I might be hard-pressed to find meat. I lack the skills and ability to obtain meat without a tool.

What of a communication medium as extension of "man?" Surely, we know folks whose social skills in RL (real life) aren't all they could be - yet who function perfectly well in IM, e-mail or VR. The tools allow us to socialize from afar. Can we still get the job done in person?

There's a question for you.