Chapters 8-15

The first line that caught my attention in chapter eight was in the first paragraph—“The spoken word therefore extends the mind.”  The Internet has many different forms of language, including email, instant messaging, IRC, Usenet news groups, the World Wide Web, etc.  Media will have a numerous amount of effects on the spoken language.  Before writing and mass printing, each village had their own language and after the emergence of these two steppingstones, language has changed in a different way.  New media has a huge impact on spoken language as well as text-based language.  Chapter nine discusses the written word and how new media has impacted it.  “The written word, an extension of the spoken word, is ultimately an extension of the mind.”  New media encourages the use of written word, however, there are so many different types of written language based on different generations, in my opinion.  E-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging cause an instantaneous form of written language as opposed to older forms.  I was rather nervous when I read that William Crossman stated that writing be wiped out by the year 2050.  Chapter ten states a website that I am very comfortable with, Mapquest.com.  I love the fact that technologies in new media can possibly have automated tolling booths.  I am not sure if McLuhan writes this before any knowledge of the EZ Pass, but it has made driving long distances extremely easier and it was an unbelievable invention.  Chapter eleven talks about binary codes, which are used for almost everything nowadays.    Digitization has made the world a much easier place.  New media plays a large role in design, distribution, marketing, and sale of clothes, as stated in chapter twelve.  Everything can be done through the Internet in present day, including one of my favorite past times, online shopping.  I can buy an unlimited amount of clothing online without having to leave my house.  As said in chapter thirteen, new media is everywhere in houses today.  It can regulate lighting, heating, cooling, humidity, and security.  It has made living much easier.  Ecommerce is a huge invention today.  I can get money out of an ATM or charge a purchase to a small piece of plastic called a credit card.  Special cards have been invented for those who are loyal customers and want to know about sales and items of interest, like that of Stop and Shop.  Websites like Amazon and Ebay make it easier for people with less money to find items that have the lowest prices.  Chapters fifteen and sixteen talk about clocks and the print.  Every electronic machine today has a clock, including microwave, TV, cell phones and cars.  The last part of the assignment is about how print is becoming obsolete with the new emergence of “digital images, computer graphics, and the hard copy output of printers connected to computers.”