Who said we shape our tools?

Culkin, Saturday Review, 1967

John M. Culkin, a friend and interpreter of Marshall McLuhan, published 'A Schoolman's Guide to Marshall McLuhan' in Saturday Review on 18 March 1967. Quote Investigator quotes him there: we shape our tools and thereafter they shape us. The McLuhan Galaxy blog makes the same attribution and says the sentence is absent from Understanding Media.

That is two write-ups of one trail. I do not have a scan of the 1967 magazine in hand, so I say 'Quote Investigator traces it' rather than 'I read the issue'.

How the game prints it

The opening quote card pairs the behold sentence with 'We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.' 'And then' is the internet's smoothing of 'thereafter'. The card signs McLuhan and adds (misattributed), which covers both sentences at once. The behold half is discussed on the quote page, including Blake.

A 1943 Churchill line about buildings is the older pattern: we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us. Quote Investigator records the date as 28 October 1943 in the House of Commons. I mention it so the tools sentence does not get glued to Churchill either.

Why a game uses it

You are holding a camera, which is the tool. The park reshapes itself around what the tool rewards. The card is the essay in one breath. The longer reading of that joke is what the game means, and it does not depend on McLuhan having said the line.

If you typed this sentence because you wanted the game and not the essay, start at the top or the memory page.

FAQ