Friday, October 23, 2009

Lecture 9/21/09

Today was an unfortunate day for me. Paul Grosswiler, head of the CMJ department came in to guest speak today. I have had Paul for many classes in the CMJ department and I must say that I am not partial to his speaking techniques. The atmosphere is always dry and monotone.
However, the content on which Paul spoke on really hits home for me. I have been hearing it for the past four years now, so it was one of those concepts that I am aware of through submersion you could say. Paul spoke of his idol, Marshall McLuhan, whom he is certainly considered an expert on. There are many views that McLuhan has that I appreciate and relate to. For example, his views on hot and cold media, the global village, and auto-amputation, all make complete sense and I have learned to adopt them as views of my own as well.
Auto-amputation in particular is what excites me. I can see just what McLuhan was alluding to when he said that we are amputating ourselves by becoming dependent on our technologies. Are we "dumming" down, or being resourceful? The debate continues...

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