McLuhan for the Digital Age — Understanding TikTok, Instagram and AI

This is NOT an online meeting but an in-person meeting. Meeting in English. Reading the book is not required. During the book discussion the leader of the discussion presents the most interesting parts of the book. The great emphasis is placed on discussion. **Book Description** What would Marshall McLuhan make of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, dating apps and AI chatbots? In *[Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man](https://archive.org/details/ETC0624/mode/2up)* and *[Laws of Media](https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780802057822/page/254/mode/2up)*, Marshall McLuhan offers a way to analyze technologies beyond the content they deliver. Media are not neutral channels: they extend human senses and abilities, reshape our patterns of perception and interaction, and transform the societies in which we use them. The four laws of media — what a medium enhances, obsolesces, retrieves and reverses into when pushed to its limits — provide a framework for exploring these transformations. McLuhan died before the rise of the Internet, smartphones and social media as we know them today. But what happens when we apply his ideas to technologies he never experienced? Do short-form videos change…