Finally, some of the other theorists that Postman quotes include Marshall McLuhan who argues that the medium becomes the message since it control all human interaction hence, as Postman argued, we become tools of that which we created; Dracula-style.
Postman's selection or, at least some of the selections, are one-sided whereas his selection of some of the other theorists demonstrates his point. Selection of Jacques Ellul is apt for Postman in that Ellul categorically viewed technology as an emerging tyranny over human freedom and Christian faith. He equated technological society with the reverence demanded that of a deity and vociferously spoke out against the strangling menace of technology on human creativity and humanity. Baudrillard, however, was more ambiguous about technology's impact on the human. He saw it as possibly impeding human creativity and distorting the human personality but also realized that there was scope for potential and much depended on how the technology was used.
To a greater degree, Postman's interpretation and understanding of McLuhan seem to be slightly skewed since McLuhan's famous aphorism about the "media being the message" speaks about the effects of communications media and that the media itself, not its contents, should be the instrument that is studied since the medium itself has little impact on society. His example given was the light bulb, or the television (extrinsic of the generated light or the TV programs). It is the bulb and TV that has the enduring effect. It is in this way that McLuhan's intent is quite different to that which Postman intended.
Postman relies a lot on history, particularly history of science and technology, and the rise of progress or Rationalism as evidenced from the Enlightenment on. His history also explores the use of tool making through what he calls its three primary phases. The first culture "had only spears and cooking utensils" (22), but in this culture tools did not prevent people from "believing in their traditions, in their God.