Ok so for all you smart people out there, this one's for you.

I've been studying Marshall McLuhan and am having a very hard time grasping the subject. But I've supplemented my readings with some videos and articles I've found. Still, something is confusing me and it is the most famous of McLuhan's sayings- that is, "The Medium is the Message." Also his definitions of Hot and Cold media.
Normally I wouldn't talk about school here, but he's such a brilliant thinker I thought he warrants a topic. Also, I hate to say it because school has never been a problem for me, but this is something I'm having a really hard time getting my head around, and any discussion is helpful. And no I don't have a T.A.
I really want to understand this, too- not just as a student- but as someone who's genuinely interested in what he has to say.



Firstly, however:
McLuhan says that, a message is  "the change of scale or pace or pattern" that a new invention or innovation "introduces into human affairs."
And he defines a medium as "any extension of ourselves."
Am I then to understand that he means to say any extension of ourselves is the change of scale or pace or pattern introduced by a new invention/innovation?
I tried looking at it this way and feel like I'm sort of getting there, but I'm not entirely sure. The invention isn't the wheel, but the pace at which the wheel allows us to go? Not language, but the ability to freely communicate our thoughts?
Going on, does he then intend to say that we can only truly understand inventions by examining their effects on humanity (the change of pace etc that they provide?)

Secondly, hot and cold media...
A cool media is something which demands little viewer involvement, such as a television show or movie, whereas a hot media requires in-depth involvement and participation, such as in a book. Is this also correct?

Thirdly, the global village
This is what has really confused me because it was never clearly outlined in my readings. Does McLuhan mean to say that because of the mad pace that technology now provides us (through communications, transportation etc) we now are able to behave as if we lived in one village- ie: we are able to communicate with someone across the world as easily as communicating to someone in the hut next door as previsual man would have? Assuming this is true, and by the pace of our technology we've created a global village, how exactly does this return us to a previsual state? He talks about how since the phonetic alphabet, man has been displaced, but how is our media which is largely visual counter this?

If you haven't read McLuhan, he's really worth a look. He's very difficult to understand, but from what I can manage to grasp, his theories are extremely interesting.