McLuhan Tetrad Wiki Task

Our body speaks many different languages depending on the circumstance and issue at hand. That said, I would conclude that technology has proven to be a great tool in helping humans to diffuse tensions that may be wrongly communicated by body language. Technology has proven very effective as a communication tool with someone that does not totally agree with your position on some matters, doing so with minimal physical contact. Instant messaging, e-mail or a phone conversation proved very useful in times like this. It is like dinning with the devil, you will require a spoon with a long stem. When opinions differ or taking a different stand on sensitive matter the least physical contact provides for least confrontation.

Yes technology has made human social interactions obsolete in many instances, but there is a positive aspect of that which can be easily overlooked. Wives are complaining about less time spent with their spouse while watching him spends a great deal of time playing video games and watching sports on television. There seem to be less and less quality time spent with family in enjoying wholesome meals and been role model for the kids. Technology has in many cases taken the adolescents of the streets reducing external bad influences, dealing drugs, street fighting and some cases created safer environments. Kids can invite friends over to enjoy playing games and engage in some other recreational activities. Therefore the human interactions are not completely removed but enhanced since you do not necessarily come in contact with strangers. We are able to control what our kids are exposed to as opposed to been outside the family settings.

Technology has allowed humans to travel worldwide by land and sea in less time, feeling refreshed and in a relaxed, safer and of course made traveling something to look forward to. According to McLuhan, "Any technology tends to create a new human environment... Technological environments are not merely passive containers of people but are active processes that reshape people and other technologies alike." (1962). He was also quoted as saying “food for the mind is like food for the body: the inputs are never the same as the outputs.” We may conclude that technology has allowed us to feed our minds with things we see and come in contact with in our travels and even at home. What we make out of these environments and technology is completely controllable.

Yes technology changes and touches our lives in many ways, individuals will have to determine for themselves how much is too much using the principle of “too much of anything is not good.” McLuhan rightly stated that “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”
What McLuhan writes about the railroad applies with equal validity to the media of print, television, computers and now the Internet. "The medium is the message" because it is the "medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action."

References:
www.marshallmcluhan.com/main.html
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/mcluhan.html