ATM Machines As Tetrad:

     In the past twenty years a form of capitalistic communication came into prevalence as on of the fastest growing, most efficient, and user friendly ways to  complete your banking business twenty-four hours a day.  This form of communication is the now widely used automatic teller machine or otherwise known as the ATM.  To establish that the ATM machine is a viable form of communication to discuss you must understand that in the pseudo-capitalistic state we live in, your bank account tells more about yourself than you would like.  Many bankers won't even look past that, and that is because of the use of computers in banking.

     The ATM functions through the use of telephone lines, fiber-optics, and linked computers.  The ATM machine allows you to complete banking business twenty-four hours a day by allowing you to interact through your ATM card and personal identification number (PIN) with the banking computer directly.  Thereby letting you withdraw money, deposit money, make payments, make small loans, or just check the level of your account with the greatest of ease.

     So after reading the above you can see what would fit under the enhances heading on McLuhan's Tetrad.  Basically, the ATM enhances the flow of money and services via phone lines and linked computers.  It also enhances ones ability to access ones money from the bank and eases ones ability to perform other banking services when they want to. 

     Since we are on McLuhan's Tetrad we must also see what happens when we fill in the information under the other headings.  The ATM obsolesces the need for checks to a great extent.  The check was developed for roughly two reasons.  One, checks enable you to carry large amounts of money with you without fear of having it taken away.  This can be done now with electronic fund transfers between banks since they are connected through computers.  Two, it let you pay for things when you couldn't get money out of the bank because the bank was closed. 

     The only competition the ATM has now really is the credit card and that puts you systematically in debt each month.  Banks are attempting to weaken the competition by introducing debit cards.  Debit cards are the same as an ATM card except when you want to take money out of your account to buy something instead of going to an ATM machine you can use the card as a credit card and by-pass the trip to the ATM machine altogether.  This will not eliminate the typical Americans urge to drive themselves in debt though.

     Another thing the ATM obsolesces is the now old time tradition of knowing your bankers.  Now after you get your ATM card you need never really step into your bank except to procure large loans and clear up computer errors in your account.  This brings us to the next thing the ATM obsolesces.  The ATM obsolesces our ability to manually and on our own balance our accounts.  Why bother balancing our own accounts when the computer keeps it up to date by itself.  We tend to forget that the computer is only as good as the information that is put into it.  Not to mention all those mysterious fees that seem to pop up when you least expect them.  We tend to let the bank do all the work for our money. 

     The ATM retrieves our understanding of what our money is doing at that moment and how it is doing it in the banking community.  In Gilbert Whites time, he knew what was happening to money he had in the bank and what would happen to it.  The banking world albeit complex even then was not as complex as it has gotten in today's world.  In 1929 when the Stock Market crashed on Wall Street there was a great demand for money from bank customers and there was a crisis bank holiday while they figured out who lost what.  Imagine what would have happened if there had been ATM machines for the people to withdraw money before the bank could react.

     The last ledger to fill on the Tetrad is to find out what the ATM reverses.  The ATM reverses into an intense state of credit worthiness as pure status.  Think of it as when your making a business deal you check out how the other person is doing in his bank account.  You can't do this now but with the info pirates out there it can happen in the future.  What could happen now is that if you have problems at one bank you can't just transfer to another bank without the information following you.  You also won't have to have any liquid assets to be able to deal in business, just be worth the money.  If you did this it would be reminiscent of the pre 1929 buying on margin spree that lead to the crash.

     In all the ATM machine has been a boon for the average Joe and released the strangle hold bank hours have had on our money.  The ATM tetrad is also not a closed tetrad.  The reversal is open to a new tetrads worth of communication possibilities.  Just remember though in the banking world of the future, "In God We Trust" all others pay cash.  If you follow this you will survive.