A Theory for Knowing in the Network Society: Connectivism

Literature

McLuhan (1964: 10) said that, the medium (technology) is the extension of the human body. Mankind has created the extensions of himself in many ways and these extensions have affected the relation among each other.

Based on the view that people create extensions of their selves by means of technology McLuhan put forward the slogan: the medium is the message, which claims that the media became the extensions of our body as each new technology are in fact messages. McLuhan suggests that, the medium itself is more important than the content carried by the medium. For example, McLuhan argues that the electric light is pure information. As long as it is not used to express a word or name, it is a medium including no messages. The content of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print the content of the telegraph. McLuhan (1964: 10) suggests that a medium affects the society not by the content delivered through it, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.