DVDs are Dead.

Have you ever heard of a guy named Marshall McLuhan?

People didn’t give him much credit by the time he died in 1980, but now he’s basically the hero of the electronic age. He predicted a “global village,” which has largely come to pass thanks to the internet.

As McLuhan envisioned in the 60s:

“Human beings have dominated the natural world through our need to enhance communication. We have conquered the globe with our older technology, eliminating the concept of space with virtual extensions of our extremities: vehicles extend our feet cross-country; telescopes enhance our optical capabilities enough to gaze deeper into the heavens than ever thought possible; and even something as simple as the written word, an extension of spoken language through time and space—itself an extension of basic thoughts, feelings, and intent—lets the voices of great minds reach across time to speak to us today. After such a thorough conquering of space and a solid dominance over one aspect of time, the past, it is only natural that we should devote our energies as a species toward the next step, the present. It all started with electricity or, more specifically, the light bulb.”

In McLuhan’s eyes, there were three crucial inventions that radically altered the way people think, feel and act. The Phonetic alphabet launched the human race into an age of literacy. Gutenberg’s press launced the Industrial Revolution (SIDE NOTE… the mass production of the Bible helped the advancement of reading glasses, which in turn lead to the invention of the microscope AND telescope, which introduced the age of reason and scientific study. Whoa.) And the light bulb, as previously mentioned, spawned the electronic age and the introduction of the global village.

ORAL → Tribal Age → PHONETICS → Literate Age → PRINTING PRESS → Print Age → LIGHT BULB → Electronic Age

Let me ponder. I notice some obvious crossover. A computer printer, for example, is an electronic printing press. Email is electronic phonetics, and a lecture (sermon) is an audio amplified (electronic) tradition of the tribal age. So the transitions from age to age are not instant. They are progressive.

If you haven’t noticed, DVDs are dead.

Apple products have removed DVD drives from their machines. The Adobe Creative suite no longer includes DVD authoring software. As further evidence, I have a stack of dusty blank DVDs on my desk. This presents a small, but interesting cog in the progression of the electronic age.

Why are DVDs dead?

McLuhan defines media as anything that amplifies or intensifies a bodily organ, sense or function. The book is an extension of the eye. The wheel is an extension of the foot. Clothing is an extension of the skin. The computer is an extension of the central nervous system.

Personal computers have become more integrated with our everyday lives. DVDs are now too far removed from that exchange. Our communication experiences will only become more immersive…but as McLuhan suggests, only as an extension of ourselves.

That means the experiences, in and of themselves, will be false.

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Virtual reality is creeping me out.

Facebook bought the Oculus Rift. 360 video is on the rise. 3D movies are (trying to be) a thing. More churches are experimenting with holograms and multisite altered-reality solutions.

So let me ask a question:

Is the church ready for the virtual age?

Social media is probably the “crucial invention” that has given us an alternate reality in which to experience our lives. The more we “extend” our senses into the world of social media, the more squarely we will find ourselves in the virtual age.

But I ponder. The more we push our senses outward, the more isolated we will become. The telescope has only revealed that we are much smaller that we ever thought. As technology advances, we must remain vigilant to protect authenticity. People will want what’s real, more than anything. What’s more real than Jesus?

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