[.uk] The Medium is the Massage (ISBN 1584230703)

Book Description:
30 years after its publication Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is the Massage remains his most entertaining, provocative, and piquant book. With every technological and social "advance" McLuhan's proclamation that "the media work us over completely" becomes more evident and plain. In his words, 'so pervasive are they in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, or unaltered'. McLuhan's remarkable observation that "societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication" is undoubtedly more relevant today than ever before. With the rise of the internet and the explosion of the digital revolution there has never been a better time to revisit Marshall McLuhan.

My view of the world ...:
... was profoundly influenced by this book. I read it about 30 years ago. I'm pleasantly surprised to find it still in print.

What is the point of this book?:
This book was recommended to me and I bought it. I have no idea what the point of this book is...it's just a bunch of tweaked out pictures. I thought it was...well, I don't know what I was thinking. I wasted ten bucks.

Very good book. Almost prophetic.:
Some of McLuhans stuff is really unaccessible for average readers... It's deep stuff... BUT we see much of what he was talking about occuring in our modern day. It's really interesting. I think if he could have found a better way to present his philosphies he could have really made much more of a difference to our "global community"

So visionary that the most important aspects are yet to come!:
Yes, it's amazing that Marshall McLuhan foresaw the internet in the 1960s. However, that is only part of his message. The movement to electronic media not only disrupts print's linear style of communication, it will dismantle traditional hierarchical structures. In a world where the means of communication have been democratized, organizations will move to collaborative environments (wikis, blogs, commenting on articles are only the beginning). Command and control structures exist, because they were the most cost-effective way to manage organizations. You Tube, Facebook, and My Space are mere playthings compared to the dawning revolution. The concept of trademarks and copyrights will be challenged in this "global village." Marshall McLuhan's thoughts are still very relevant, because much of what he predicts is yet to come!

Shallow:
This book is filled with un-artful pictures because it has nothing to say. A 3-year-old could produce better artwork, and you'd learn more by picking up a magazine and a coffee at Borders.