first reading post

In his chapter “Clocks: The Scent of Time” from Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan describes the contrast between cultures who exist without clocks and cultures who rely on clocks and standardized time. McLuhan details tribal cultures where people eat when they’re hungry and go to sleep when they’re tired in contrast to modern clockwatchers who schedule their meals and bedtime at specific times of the day. He uses this and other points of contrast to make the larger statement that modern man doesn’t just use clocks to tell time, and that standardized time and reliance on clocks actually condition how man functions.

At several points in the chapter McLuhan returns to the concept of technology becoming an extension of man, a concept that is privileged as the subtitle of the book: “The Extensions of Man”. He notes that when this extension of our selves through technology occurs, we become numb to its ubiquitous presence. McLuhan seems to be arguing that a clock becomes an extension of not just the eyes, but a person’s entire being. At the very start of the chapter, he mentions how time divides each day into independent units, and that literate people who can tell time experience anxiety when they restlessly want to get from one of those units in their schedule to the next unit. Anyone reading this can probably relate to the experience of being unable to sleep and staring at a clock only to develop more stress, anxiety, and sleeplessness while watching the unit of designated sleep time merge closer to the designated time of waking up and getting ready for work.

As I read McLuhan’s chapter on “Clocks” I considered how prescient he has been, and how many of his observations on the causality between man and relying on clocks are amplified with today’s digital watches or smartwatches. In the earlier chapter “Hot and Cold”, McLuhan writes, “The effect of electric technology had at first been anxiety. Now it appears to create boredom” (43). Personally, I can relate to this with my recent experience owning a wristwatch that is also an electronic fitness tracker. For years, I owned a wristwatch that only told time. I mainly checked my watch when I was nervous and anxious to get somewhere else, a condition that McLuhan himself describes. Now, my wristwatch is a fitness tracker that tells time and counts my steps and calories burned. I have stopped checking time when I’m nervous, and instead check my steps walked and calories burned out of boredom. Most of the time I check my step counter I already have a fair idea of how much I’ve walked, but it’s something to do. Instead of sitting with my thoughts, I check my fitness tracker to be engaged with something and ward off impeding boredom. Just my experience going from wristwatch to digital fitness tracker emphasizes McLuhan’s argument that electronic technology first creates anxiety and then boredom.