McLuhan: Media Hot and Cold

McLuhan begins by categorizing media as either 'hot' or 'cold'. A hot medium puts one sense in "high definition", requires low participation, user can be passive to the point of 'hypnosis', and is generally one way communication. A cool medium is generally low definition, requiring the user to fill in the missing details, therefore it can be considered high participation, sometimes hyperactive to the point of 'hallucination'.

Examples:

HOT COOL
hieroglyphic characters phonetic alphabet
paper for writing stone tablets for writing
lecture seminar
book dialogue
photograph cartoon
radio telephone
movie TV

McLuhan goes on to describe the disruptive nature of hot technologies. When hot mediums of "the mechanical, uniform, and repetitive kind" (i.e. tools) are introduced to a society, they cause a collapse ('detribalization') in the structure of that civilization. Examples of this 'specialist' technology could be money or writing - anything that speeds up exchange and information. But, a larger speed-up, a 'nonspecialist' technology, like electricity, that allows instantaneous information, will retribalize a society.

In studying media and its affects, we must look at the big picture over and over again, holistically, as is necessary in order to gain insight. It is understood that no medium has its meaning alone, but rather in relation to other media. I think this may also be related to technological convergence, and how each media is playing off another, and each media's significance is determined in comparison to how it interacts with or amplifies other media. McLuhan may also be pointing to a trends toward more of a total systems analysis when evaluating media, which ironically, is a "relearning" in our culture; in oral cultures, it is standard practice to look at things holistically from a point of total systems awareness. For the same reason that oral cultures haven't experienced the fragmentation from some hot specialized technologies, they are more fully capable of understanding electric technology in a comprehensive, 'total' fashion.

A quote is presented by Margaret Mead, where she gives her opinion about social change being able to happen in backward countries by sufficiently hotting them up - what I'll call a "critical mass convergence":

"There are too many complaints about society having to move too fast to keep up with the machine. There is great advantage in moving fast if you move completely, if social, educational, and recreational changes keep pace. You must change the whole pattern at once and the whole group together - and the people themselves must decide to move."

Cities are also described as hot or cool. Hot cities are highly developed and structured, offering low opportunities of participation, with high specialist fragmentation. Cool cities on the other hand are more casually structured, and offer higher participation and a more democratic way of life, and more opportunities for expression. It more or less states that high levels of structure lead to stagnation; innovation and creativity levels drop in hot mediums.

It is possible to manipulate societies if the effects of hot/cool media on hot/cool cultures are understood. For instance, a hot medium used in a cool culture can have a violent effect, just as a cool medium in a hot culture can be equally upsetting. At the same time, there is a saturation point, where a culture has reached a sensory overload or "sensory peak", and the medium is no longer effective. Perhaps there is a diminishing effectiveness of hot film media like documentaries, which are supposed to spur you to social change.... perhaps we need a cool medium like participatory media/social media to make change happen.