21.4.08

Hypothesis



McLuhan states that people adapt to their environment through a certain balance or ratio of their senses, and the primary medium of the age brings out a particular sense ratio. McLuhan sees every medium as an extension of some human faculty, with the media of communication thus exaggerating this or that particular sense. In his words, "The wheel...is an extension of the foot. The book is an extension of the eye... Clothing, an extension of the skin...Electric circuitry,an extension of the central nervous system". Whatever predominates media will influence human beings by affecting the way they perceive the world.