The Medium is the Message

Having never heard the name Marshall McLuhan before, I did what any product of Gen Y would do and went straight to Google.

I found that in all my searches, a common phrase accompanied McLuhan's name - "the medium is the message." That sounds familiar. I thought about where I had recently heard that phrase. I racked my brain for all the useless sites I scan and the bad television I watch. I finally realized I had heard the phrase while watching Degrassi - I said bad television. This phrase from a man I have never heard of is hitting mainstream teen culture. One of the teachers was telling a scantily dressed girl selling sports drinks to students that "the medium is the message." The teacher was telling her that it did not so much matter what she was selling, instead the way she barely covered herself was making more of an impression that the drink.

This is what McLuhan was trying to tell us by saying "the medium is the message." McLuhan argues that the content we receive is not as important and the vehicle transporting it. The medium directly influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan was ahead of his time, writing books and essays from the 1950's to the 1970's. He captured ideas on paper that had never even crossed some peoples minds at the time. This book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man from which the phrase "the medium is the message" is taken is just one of the great works published by McLuhan.

McLuhan's ideas on the 'global village' are very relevant today. The concept of "electronic interdependence" focuses on the media connecting the world though mediums such as the internet. It is astounding that a man growing up at a time when the internet was not standard as it is now and world news was not quite how we receive it to have insight to such notions.

I wonder how McLuhan could have predicted that we would have the ability to be so connected to the world. Currently, we have the potential to know what is going on not only all over America, but all over the world. The internet is a great tool for this.

I am able to find information about current events in other countries with a simple Google search. I can find friends from other countries with services like Facebook or Twitter. The internet allows me to be connected in ways that are not possible with face to face interaction. We know how much snow England is receiving right now because of "electronic interdependence." With out the means to find all this information we would be stuck in an era that would not be as full of potential knowledge.

Yes, this concept of the 'global village' has it's down side. We lose the face to face contact in some cases. We are relying on a computer to spit out our information rather than our parents. However, as much as they would like to think, our parents don't know everything. The internet allows you explore beyond your dimensions. The world comes closer, so close all you have to do it type what you want.