That is, the major social effect of the telephone is to remove the identity of the caller. If he is not identified or chooses not to identify himself, he loses touch with a geographic location and a social function. He becomes truly discarnate and, in that psychic sense, uncontrollable—a phone poltergeist, as it were, who occasionally produces the obscene phone call.
The Global Village with Bruce Powers (1989), p 123
Year: 1989
Chapter:
Discarnate
↪ Also at #1534
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan