The article “The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan argues that the medium in which information is presented influences the audience’s perspective. The medium shapes and controls the scale of human association and action and is important to effectively communicate a message. To exemplify, forms of physics, painting, and poetry all include different forms of media in which they communicate a certain message. The author explains that then through these mediums people retain some sense of the whole pattern and then function as a form of unity.
Interestingly, this article explains how this importance of media, especially technological, has major formative power on society. I interpret this passage as aiming to bring attention to the fact that people tend to focus on the obvious, being the content, but lose sight of the importance of the underlying and subtle changes. McLuhan explains that media should be valued similarly to coal, cotton, or wheat being a major staple in the economy and a driving factor of either prosperity of instability. As society’s mode of operation change, and as we advance technologically, it is only then that we realize the societal implications of the medium. I found this article intriguing because it seems like most would argue that people should pay attention to the content rather then the media, but this article makes a compelling case as to why the medium in which the content is conveyed is the most valuable.