The Written Word: An Eye for an Ear

In Marshall Mcluhan's article, "The Written Word: An Eye for an Ear," we find that it is true that things are becoming much more technological then they used to be.  Mclauhan uses the example of the American flag.  If we were to write down the word "American Flag" instead of being able to actually look at the stars and stripes themselves, the effect on us as people would be extremely different.  Yes we would get the same meaning, but we might not feel as strongly without actually seeing it there.  The emotions that we feel from actually looking at the American flag would in no way, shape, or form be able to be shown if we were to just look at words.  Mclauhan goes into great detail about alphabetic cultures which was basically breaking up every kind of experience into uniform units and he compares these to hieroglyphic cultures.