Questions for the article “Digital McLuhan”

1.      What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?

The pre-literate acoustic world was fully immersive where the alphabetical visual world removed one from other senses. In other words, when one is engaged in a conversation they are using their ears to hear, their eyes to see, and their mouth to talk, but when one is reading they are focusing down to only their visual sense. The television has become part of the acoustic world because of its immersive values. You’re using both your eyes to see and your ears to hear, but you can also multi-task and still absorb the information that the television is sharing.

2.      Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?

According to the article, the segregating tendencies of the alphabet are that the written word (in the age before the printing press) was extremely hard to come by, very few people had books and very few knew how to read, and the written word could only be read by one person at a time, whereas a cave painting could be viewed by several. The printing press made it so that one piece of written information could be copied in such a way that many more people were able to take part and share the message that it delivered. This did some to reduce the segregating tendencies of the alphabet.

3.      How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?

The alphabetic communication online is acoustic in the sense that it provides an outlet for feedback. This is what also makes the online acoustic world different than television, radio, or print—in addition to the fact that the internet provides almost anyone with the ability to deliver a message to the masses.

4.      Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years.

The selection criteria that we have for choosing new media technologies are that the media will expand out communication possibilities beyond what we can do from a purely biological standpoint, and that media must recapture some semblance to biological communication. From the criteria listed, online communication should become more and more tuned to a combination of video and sound, and the written word should begin to phase out.

I hope these are at least kind of right, this reading material is pretty thick if you ask me.