I found this reading particularly interesting where title, “The Medium Is the Message” focuses on the idea that the way that we send and receive information is more important that the information itself. I thought this philosophy was true in many ways and often I could see it in my everyday life as well as in the past.
For instance, Nikola Tesla, a brilliant inventor and genius, created the modern alternating current electricity supply system. At the time, the direct current electrical system was more common and marketed by Thomas Edison. However, the direct current system had many problems as it required a power plant every square mile and couldn’t transmit electricity very far. However, Tesla’s alternate current system used thinner wires, had higher voltages, and could transmit electricity over much longer distances. Even though the alternate current system was by far better than the direct current system, Edison electrocuted pets with Tesla’s alternate current electric system in public to convince people that alternate current was to dangerous to use for home use so they would be more convinced to buy from Edison’s product itself. I think this is a perfect example for “the medium is the message” because in this case, although the “information” which was Tesla’s alternate current system, despite how good it was, due to having a bad reputation by others, it failed to be as commercially successful as Edison’s direct current electric system.
Another example that I can see of this is that often in the news media, a really trivial and unimportant event will receive high coverage such as news about certain Hollywood celebrities and updates about their life. However, natural disasters that are affecting thousands of lives in what part of the world or a scientific discovery that could save thousands are often not on the front page of news sources. This is also another case of how “the medium is the message” since although the given information is incredibly important to society as a whole, due to public interests, it is marketed as being insignificant while truly insignificant things are more publicized. Or perhaps I’m being too opinionated in my blog post but I can definitely see examples that portray how “the medium is the message”.