McLuhan and the internet

I found a presentation of a book “Mc Luhan reconsidered” by Jim Andrews (http://vispo.com/writings/essays/mcluhana.htm), and an interesting Nicholas Carr’s blog (http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/11/mcluhans_net.php). Both authors give their opinion on Marshall McLuhan’s theories, and explain how theories of this famous scientist changed with the new media.
Marshall McLuhan was Canadian academic, known by his best-selling book Understanding Media. His central thesis, expressed in the famous phrase “the medium is the message,” was that the technologies through which we take in information ( media) become “extensions” of our bodies.
McLuhan believed that culture is affected by technology through the impact on social structures but also by the ways in which it changes us. The technology will, according to McLuhan, shape our actions.
The electric media of television and computers, argued McLuhan, would liberate us from our dependence on the printed word. Print was what he called a “hot” medium, one that absorbed all of our attention and left little room for participation. The spoken word, was by contrast a “cool” medium that left plenty of space for participation.
Electric media, being cool technologies that promote interaction, would bring back our lost tribal consciousness, McLuhan believed.
I like the blogger’s interpretation of McLuhan theories. I agree with him- we can’t put internet into “hot” and cool” difference. It encourages participation but it also dominates user’s senses and attention. I wouldn’t say the internet brings back our consciousness. “Global village” is enormous, so it changes the way community and humanity should be considered, in terms of cyber society.