Category: Cici Liu

The essence of McLuhan’s essay lies in the fact that the medium through which a message is conveyed has a direct impact on the impression that the message itself has on it’s audience. And, with any device that can be wielded by a human, comes a deep sense of responsibility in the sense that it can have both beneficial, or detrimental effects, depending on how it is used.  He says “Firearms are in themselves neither good nor bad, it is the way that it is used that determines its value.” This is such a timely statement in the present-day context because of how the Internet has evolved to become an information super-highway. And, it is important to take into account what sort of information travels across this highway, and to whom. For instance, various terror propaganda groups are notorious for using online social media to recruit members and spread malicious content. On the other side of the spectrum, there are the major corporations that favour certain content providers over others, creating an unequal environment where the ability to consume, produce and convey your content is determined by your financial and/or political prowess.  Technological advancements in certain sectors have the potential to create societal disparities as well. For example, certain education systems employ the use of modern multimedia and other technologies to deliver content, while others utilize traditional, analogue media such as blackboards and chalk as a medium.  And, in the field like education, the medium plays a pivotal role in determining how well the content is delivered and understood. Another sector that relies heavily on the medium of conveyance is the entertainment industry. With virtual and augmented realities becoming more mainstream and accessible, both producers and consumers alike, now have an additional choice when it comes to selecting how they wish to consume content. This also creates more opportunities for expression since newer media allow for more interaction, involvement and immersion than  ever before.

At the end of the day, like how the electric light in McLuhan’s essay was a medium for a spectrum of things, the Internet could also be considered to be very similar in that sense, and it is upto us to determine how useful or destructive it will be to society.

For me, this article had hit my nerve thoroughly. When I first think of what does that mean by “the medium is the message”, I could hardly give it an explanation by  intuition. Initially, I thought it would be a essay talking about message and technology, but actually doesn’t. While reading across the lines, I started questioning: does a really understand the message conveyed by various medium? In addition to the change in  human association and activities brought up by these mediums, we need to consider the medium itself. Take computer for instance, when we think of it, we should not only think about the progress after inventing the computer, but also think of how to use it more efficiently through analyzing it.  Using IBM as an example, McLuhan stated that once the company penetrated what their ultimate goal was, they could navigate with a clear vision (152). 

There is also an expression he used that I found help me understand this whole passage better, which is: ” Instead of asking which came first, the chicken or the egg, it suddenly seemed that a chicken was an egg’s idea for getting more eggs (McLuhan 154).” From this we can see that instead of getting  accustomed to certain fact, what we need to do is to see through the fact and make change of it.  Just as the connection C.G Jung has made,  we should not let ourselves be surrounded by “slaves” and influenced by them. The essence is to see the undermined message behind medium.