June 5, 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 Director/Chief Archivist, Marshall McLuhan Center On Global Communications, Ross, Ca.
Why Does Technological Acceleration Produce a Longing for Technological Restraint?
A Student of Technology asks:
Why does technological acceleration produce a longing for technological restraint?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
Every technology is an extension of the human body or mind. But as Marshall McLuhan warned, every extension is also an amputation. The wheel extends the foot, the book extends the eye, and the smartphone extends the nervous system. As these extensions become more powerful, they also become more demanding.
Today, many young people are rediscovering flip phones, film cameras, vinyl records, and other older technologies. Among 18 to 24-year-olds, purchases of basic phones jumped roughly 148 percent between 2021 and 2024, and US vinyl sales passed a billion dollars in 2025, with much of that growth driven by the young. At first glance this appears irrational. Why abandon superior tools for inferior ones?
The answer is that people are not necessarily seeking less capability. They are seeking more control.
The smartphone is not merely a telephone. It is a portable environment. It brings work, entertainment, advertising, social obligations, news, and anxiety into every waking moment. The result is not simply more information. It is more stimulation.
When stimulation exceeds the human capacity to process it, people begin searching for limits. What appears to be nostalgia may actually be self-preservation.
A civilization that accelerates continuously eventually creates a demand for brakes. The faster the environment moves, the more attractive restraint becomes. Thus the return of older technologies may not represent a rejection of progress at all. It may represent an attempt to recover a sustainable relationship with progress.
In the Information Age, simplicity becomes valuable because complexity has become abundant. What many people seek is not less technology, but technology that leaves room for the human being.
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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