The message of the electric light is like the message of electric power in industry, totally radical, pervasive, and decentralized. For electric light and power are separate from their uses, yet they eliminate time and space factors in human association exactly as do radio, telegraph, telephone, and TV, creating involvement in depth.

The most active passage here is the introduction of the “elimination of time and space factors in human association”. That is, because of the ability of these technologies to manipulate information that travels over wire or air at roughly the speed of light (without time lags that would render normal modes of communication impossible so long as you’re somewhere on Earth), they recreate the ability to communicate in depth in spite of geographical distance. This instantaneous nature of electricity is then what MM builds his theory of electronic tribalism upon. If advanced technologies allow us to create associations with far flung humans that are as rich in depth as a close-knit tribal alliance in direct proximity, we may find ourselves leaning into the relative comfort of that long-held pattern of association.

What is interesting for the present (2021) is that in the wake of the distancing required by the pandemic, this virtual or electronic world necessarily grows in scope and scale. As more and more communication is taken online, this virtual space is expanded while the metaphysical borders of the physical world of communication necessarily shrinks. Thus the message or effect of these forms of virtual communication forms are expanded and amplified. Socially, virtual forms of communication MEAN more.

With much being said about extreme political polarization, and the proliferation of conspiracy groups, these phenomenon appear as if they could be an outcome of the the twin effects of electronic tribalization, and the expansion of the virtual tribal space.