McLuhan said in his interview with Playboy: "From Tokyo to Paris to Columbia, youth mindlessly acts out its identity quest in the theatre of the streets, searching not for goals but for roles, striving for an identity that eludes them" (249). I was drawn to this, albeit overdramatic, statement - perhaps because it reminds me of the theme of disenfranchised youth as discussed by Bruce Springsteen in his album "Born To Run". In this section McLuhan is discussing the youth of the 60's and the technological chasm that separates them from their parents because of the youth's inundation in the cool medium of television - one that is more opaque and withdrawn and requires greater interaction - as opposed to the hot medium of reading/radio - mediums that hyper-stimulate one sense and are extremely available and not at all interactive - that their parents' generation grew up with. As a result of the cultural and technological disparity between these two generations, the previous educational model is no longer effective in teaching the youth and "today's child is growing up absurd because he is suspended between two worlds and two value systems, neither of which inclines him to maturity because he belongs wholly to neither but exists in a hybrid limbo of constantly conflicting values" (250).
As a person born in the internet and computer generation, another technological revolution, much like that brought on by the television, I feel that there is a similar chasm separating my parents and myself brought on by the introduction of the computer, arguably the coolest, most interactive medium yet. Following McLuhan's theory, this chasm separating me from my parents also separates me from my teachers (who regrettably still require me to read books - a scalding hot medium in comparison to the computer!). The agony!
Wolff's article on Educational Leadership offered a look into how technology is currently being incorporated into education to create a more technologically appropriate approach to learning for those children otherwise growing up absurd from being suspended between the old and the new. Under the section "The Distracted Reader", Wolff intones a hopefulness in digital text, allowing for a highly interactive and creative way to encourage deep thought for today's whippersnappers. The hope is that now with the internet and computers at a student's disposal, interest in a Shakespearian play can drive "a discovery process" that leads the reader to all sorts of related and enriching materials such as relavant historical information, videos of the play, discussion groups etc. Though I share Wolff's hope that such technological resources be incorporated in the education of the youth, I myself experienced none of these methods implemented in my elementary - high school education. Of course, I could have taken the initiative and used these resources on my own - and I suppose in researching for papers and the like I did in fact - yet there was never any coordinated effort on the side of the educator to incorporate the new technology in the classroom.
Hooray, someone tackled the McLuhan! To be honest, McLuhan's categorization of "hot" and "cold" media are notorious for being difficult to understand and extend. We could probably endlessly debate whether or not reading is really a "hot" medium or TV a "cool" one (while those raised on the Internet might see books as a dictatorial, unimodal medium, literature scholars might argue that we interact just as much with books as we do with computers, and that stories draw on multiple senses). As the interviewer notes, McLuhan was known for erratic and hyperbolic pronouncements, deliberately difficult to pin down. Think of him as a provocateur, and debate accordingly.
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