Blog essay #2: Electronic Age

Ish Krishna
Feb 10, 2022
4 min read

Updated: Feb 15, 2022

Base on how media seem to have evolved according to McLuhan, do you think the current media that we have now fits in the fourth epoch? Why or why not?

According to McLuhan, in Electronic Age this epoch will be the times where someone's business is everyone's business, because we have this global connection with one another which we call Global village wherein this generation will be the rise of technological advancements, and constant contact with the world.

In this 21st century, where various devices help us with our daily lives and routine not to mention, due to the pandemic, all of us are forced to use technology. Device exposure for the most of our lives even the appliances as home, especially the commnication devices for the students and employees whose work relies online.

Now you might be thinking, "wEll kRisHnA, eVeN wiThOuT pAndEmiC wE cAn sTilL comMuniCatE wiTh oNe aNotHer"

I know. And that's because you've been alive since (or somewhere between) this century. Keep in mind that with each era comes development (which is the whole point of the word 'epoch') . But before we go there, let's rewind and talk about the rise of technology; when, why and who.

We all know that 1800-1900's is the era of your grandparents (or great grandparents), but even then they are unconsciouly exposed to different technology that contributed to the technological age we have now (you should go visit and kiss them a thank you). Firstly, the invention of telephone by a frenchman Antonio Meucci which was successfully devised by Charles Bourseul. But we all know that telephone was first popularized by Alexander Graham Bell (Oh, you didnt know? Sorry. But now, you're welcome) and from the same idea of communication through a spoken telegraph, has evolved and improved by other people and inventors. That is just a start of this new epoch. Now if we trace Bell's telephone to our Iphone and Androids now, it's gonna look something like this:

Oh Im sorry, you didnt see the Kriiing Kriiing of Mr. Bell's invention? Because that's just the preview of how technology has evolve. Now for all you babies who are unaware of what telephones look like, they have separate sections for hearing and talking, and dialing to communicate, like these:

They evolved as we acquire new found knowledge and ideas. It becomes smaller and handy in time, which is now what we call cellphone devices. This could also be your tablet or computer's ancestors.

Just to let you know, the idea of telephone didn't just sprout out of nowhere. It was invented for a reason which is to carry a message real-time and quickly, unlike the telegram used before which would take days to months or probably years (depending on the distance) until it arrives to the recipient.

Imagine if your ancestor, a pregnant woman, are to tell the husband, which is in another side of earth, of their son's birth tomorrow and needs for him to come see his child. Dad's probably gonna arrive on the child's first birthday. How quick is that?

So that is one of the reason why thankfully we have these devices such as tablets, personal computer, laptop, mobiles, television etc. that contains applications such as facebook, messenger, instagram, twitter, etc. and are maximizing the use of media to communicate to others; it is quick to respond to urgencies, it is convenient, and it saties boredom because of its ability to download games, e-book, web-comics, and shows.

And quite frankly, we use these devices even if we are not in emergence! we download different games here, both online and offline (I know you do, just in case when Internets' cannot be reached) I bet you have more than entertainment application than educational ones.

Oh! Speaking of Internet and educational applications, we can return to the discussion of:

In this 21st century, where various devices help us with our daily lives and routine not to mention, due to the pandemic, all of us are forced to use technology. Device exposure for the most of our lives even the appliances as home, especially the commnication devices for the students and employees whose work relies online.

Because of the pandemic, we are limited of physical contact, which means no physical communication as in face to face. Including both workplaces and educational institutions and especially in other mass-populated public places. But since economy and education shall function no matter what despite the no touchy-touchy policy, we had to adapt to our rising technological age and use the full advantage or benefits we could use from these devices--which is to use the applications for online meetings with our class, colleagues, boss, etc.

We can take for example the country of JAPAN. A country whose advancements are far beyond than the rest of the other countries, where they have produced interactive hologram projects, robots, and more! I think they're far from just settling with online/virtual meetings and have advanced furthermore. They are so into technology that their 'waifu' (japanese animated character) they could bring into life using this hologram (or Dakimakura--body pillow with their favorite anime characters in it)

NOW! back to the question: