Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher of communication theory who was way ahead of his time. He was born 7/21/11 and passed away 12/31/80. I am particularly amazed at the paragraph from his book published in 1962, The Gutenberg Galaxy, where he basically predicts the invention of the internet:
“The next medium, whatever it is — it may be the extension of consciousness — will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual’s encyclopedic function and flip it into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.”
(http://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/marshall-mcluhan-predicted-the-internet/)
Did I mention the year 1962! We did not even see the internet until the early 1990's, at least 10 years after his death.
Marshall McLuhan also came up with a tetrad of media effects. The tetrad looks at any technology's effect on society and divides them up into four categories. He viewed the four categories formed as questions:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innis-mcluhan/030003-2030-e.html
When I think about this and apply it to social media and social media marketing, I come up with the following observations:
What does social media/social media marketing enhance? It enhances communication and speed. Things are done so much quicker via this method. A few clicks of a mouse, taps on some keys and you can communicate with tons of people in a matter of second.
What does it reverse? When it is pushed to its limits I think the reverse would be real people communicating with real people instead of via the internet, people going to actual stores to shop in, a direct experience instead of a virtual one.
What does it retrieve? From a personal perspective it retrieves connections between people who may have lost touch, from a marketing/business perspective it retrieves product information easily.
What does it obsolesce? To name a few things that become obsolete with social media/social media marketing we have: actual personal interaction, the need to go to a store, greeting cards or handwritten letters, the telephone.
“The next medium, whatever it is — it may be the extension of consciousness — will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual’s encyclopedic function and flip it into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.”
(http://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/marshall-mcluhan-predicted-the-internet/)
Did I mention the year 1962! We did not even see the internet until the early 1990's, at least 10 years after his death.
Marshall McLuhan also came up with a tetrad of media effects. The tetrad looks at any technology's effect on society and divides them up into four categories. He viewed the four categories formed as questions:
- What does it enhance?
- What does it make obsolete?
- What does it retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
- What does it flip into when pushed to extremes?
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innis-mcluhan/030003-2030-e.html
When I think about this and apply it to social media and social media marketing, I come up with the following observations:
What does social media/social media marketing enhance? It enhances communication and speed. Things are done so much quicker via this method. A few clicks of a mouse, taps on some keys and you can communicate with tons of people in a matter of second.
What does it reverse? When it is pushed to its limits I think the reverse would be real people communicating with real people instead of via the internet, people going to actual stores to shop in, a direct experience instead of a virtual one.
What does it retrieve? From a personal perspective it retrieves connections between people who may have lost touch, from a marketing/business perspective it retrieves product information easily.
What does it obsolesce? To name a few things that become obsolete with social media/social media marketing we have: actual personal interaction, the need to go to a store, greeting cards or handwritten letters, the telephone.