基于人类延伸的媒介二重性——重思麦克卢汉《理解媒介:论人的延伸》

Media Duality Based on Human Extensions:Rethinking McLuhan,Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man

综观人类历史,信息的生产、交互极为重要,而信息则通过媒介传播影响人类发展进程。六十余年前,麦克卢汉敏锐地捕捉到了媒介对于人类的意义:媒介是人的延伸。本文将重新思考麦克卢汉的经典之作,探讨基于人类延伸的媒介发展如何影响人类社会发展。本文认为,麦克卢汉的著作在互联网时代孕育了新意义:一方面,媒介作为人类的延伸在宏观层面是社会抵御国家不合理'干预'的有力武器,意味着媒介作为国家与社会边界的'节拍器';另一方面,媒介作为人类的延伸意味着在微观层面对个人生命历程的关注,意味着媒介对生命底色的彰显。

Throughout history,the production and interaction of information have been extremely important. However,information has been influenced by the process of human development through media dissemination.More than sixty years ago,Marshall McLuhan acutely captured the significance of media for mankind:media are an extension of mankind.This article rethinks this classic work by McLuhan and discusses how the development of media based on the extensions of man affected the development of human society.This article holds that McLuhan’s works have a new significance in the age of the Internet:on the one hand,as the extensions of man,the media are a powerful weapon for society to oppose state intervention at the macro level,which means that the media are the'metronome ' of the boundary between state and society;on the other hand,' the media are the extensions of man'means paying a ttention to the course of personal life and highlighting the background of life at the micro level.