"The Medium Is The Message" - Marshall McLuhan

'The Medium Is the Message'

In this extract, Marshall McLuhan defines "The Medium Is The Message" as an idea that integrates human feeling and thought, with technological medium, and the theory of self-reflection in thoughts of 'it is, perhaps, of the bias of our intensely technological and, therefore, narcotic culture that we have long interpreted the Narcissus story to mean that he fell in love with himself, and that he imagined the reflection to be Narcissus' (McLuhan [1991:42]).

Also, McLuhan explores both modern and traditional forms of human expression, and shows how fragmentation of different medium helps to create a meaning or a message, such as thought into discourse, discourse into writing, and writing into print or press, in relation to 'not only the exponential explosion of print in the nineteenth century but also the massive proliferation of a wide variety of popular mechanical devices, from the kaleidoscope, thaumatrope, phenakistoscope, zoetrope, praxinoscope, and kinetoscope to the stereograph, photograph, telegraph, typewriter, player piano, telephone, phonograph, and early film' (Colligan and Linley [2011:1]).

McLuhan highlights how thought and language as a medium is extended through the use of machine, and automated technology, and the way in which we use these technologies as amplifiers, and a general and prevalent acceleration of human life, society, and explores the positive and negative effects of the growth and change that these technologies and processes have on the modern world and 'the extent to which new media change culture, necessitating answering changes to the norms of social attitudes and behaviors' (Bruce and German [2011:192]).

However, McLuhan then goes on to explore how content is defined by the medium, such as the meaning behind a painting, or the visual or message on a TV screen, which is shown through the individual medium of electronic light.

Also, McLuhan presents the idea that content can be determined by the allowances that technology implies, such as a painting in contrast to computer graphics, or even the telephone in contrast to speech which defies the restrictions of time and space, and therefore becomes an amplification or acceleration of already existing processes; replacing much more realistic or traditional forms of human association and communication through means of new technology, and presenting technology as an extension of ourselves. 

Although, the view of technology as both a positive and negative growth in society is stated as being neither good nor bad, and that it is in fact the way that we use technology that gives it value.

However, in contradiction to this, the article then goes on to highlight the psychological effect of technological medium, and the message that is being communicated through society's response to new technologies, such as technology being used as a tool of homogenisation in particular cultures and societies that can afford and access it. 

Therefore, technology may be seen as a segregative force between certain cultures and social classes, and being used as a means of control and structuring certain cultures and communities. Also, the psychology of technological medium is metaphorically referenced in the article as being a slave to society, and that this mentality is unknowingly and unwittingly influential on the unconscious, causing communities to become influenced by the notion of slavery, and therefore society responds as slaves to the technology that surrounds us, giving new meaning to "The Medium Is The Message".

The growth of new technology and its effects on mass, contemporary societies shows a considerable determination on the creation of medium, in which the motive, the consequence, and the implications on human nature becomes the message. The affordances of spacial, temporal, mental, physical, and behavioral extensions and changes may become a primary concern for the nature of the future, the human race, and the nature of both the individual and the homogenized macrocosm. Also, “The Medium Is the Message” may be a term which can apply to a new study of both human and technological evolution as uniform concepts:  

Reference List: 

Bruce, E. Drushel., and German, K. eds.,  2011. Ethics of Emerging Media: Information, Social Norms, and New Media Technology. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group. 

Colligan, C., and Linley, M. eds., 2011. Media, Technology, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century: Image, Touch, Sound. London: Ashgate. 

McLuhan, M., 1991. Understanding Media, The Extensions Of Man. London: The MIT Press.