May 31, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ — McDialogue™
An Exploration of Technology Ecology as an Anchor in a Sea of Change™ and Tactical Training in Counter-Propaganda Science™
By Nelson S. Thall, former President/CEO Marshall McLuhan Centre On Global Communications, Toronto, Canada.
Why Do People Publicly Condemn the Technologies They Privately Embrace?
A Student of Technology asks:
Why do people often criticize new technologies in public while quietly adopting and depending upon them in private?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
Because every new technology creates two environments at once.
The first is the visible environment of content, where people focus on what the technology appears to do. The second is the invisible environment of effects, where the technology quietly restructures habits, institutions, and daily life.
People generally argue about the content while unconsciously adapting to the effects.
When automobiles appeared, people criticized speed and danger while building entire cities around roads. When television arrived, people criticized the programs while rearranging their living rooms around the screen. Today, many people criticize artificial intelligence while using it to write, search, plan, communicate, and think.
The contradiction is not hypocrisy. It is a feature of human perception.
As Marshall McLuhan observed, we march backward into the future. We see the past clearly, but the effects of the present environment remain largely invisible.
Every extension of man is also an amputation. As we extend our powers through technology, we lose direct awareness of the changes taking place within ourselves. The new environment becomes normal long before it becomes visible.
People therefore condemn the figure while embracing the ground. They attack the visible content while depending on the unseen environment it creates around them.
The technology they oppose in public may already be the ground beneath their feet.
The real issue is not whether we approve or disapprove of a technology. The real issue is whether we can perceive what it is doing to us before it becomes the water in which we swim.
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All intellectual property contained herein was conceived, originated and authored exclusively by Nelson S. Thall. Artificial intelligence aka a pseudo-conscious machine (PCM) was not employed. We hired a stenographer. No intellectual contribution or creative authorship is attributed to the AI tool. All rights of authorship and ownership vest entirely and exclusively with Nelson S. Thall.
I can be reached at nelson@themediumisthemessage.com