A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

… today's teens hate bigness. That is a peculiarity of electric speed where you have everything happening at once, in the same place. Instead of expansion or explosion, you have a sudden contracion or implosion. "Small is beautiful" is their motto. The fact that the ntire world is at their fingertips shapes their thinking. So they start to ask questions. "Why do we have giant expressways?" "Why do we need to keep going faster on them and in bigger and bigger vehicles?" “Why do we need railway tracks?" "Why all of this?"
“Religion and Youth”: Second Conversation with Pierre Babin (1977), in The Medium and the Light (1999), p 95
Year: 1977
Chapter: Youth
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan