As Mcluhan gives out his idea in his book that “the medium is the message”, he argues that the medium itself is more important than the so-called information it conveys, which means the effect of the medium itself should be taken seriously rather than the “content” it carries. He brings us a brand new view of the“medium” and “message” to our culture.
According to the traditional dominant view, as Mcluhan describes, “A chicken is an egg’s idea for getting more eggs” (157). Nothing is meaningful beyond the medium — the message transferring machine. However, this discourse definitely fails to be true, as the examples of existing in the current age prove it well. The rapid revolution of technology nowadays refreshed the way and the container of the information quickly. “If it works, it’s obsolete” (159) The most popular medium (eg. smartphones, wi-fi…) even do not exist ten years ago. People’s habits and minds of receiving the information has been totally changed compared with before. This just fits Mcluhan’s thought that the medium itself is also a kind of message that greatly influences human society and our culture. This idea forces us to review the history of the medium culture and also its relationship to the general human history: ratio, as well as the internet, turn our reception of information from five senses into intangible waves and data; printing changes the weight of visual sense in the culture learning, as a result, several human philosophy theories have been gradually changed: individualism, nationalism…; TV provoked the revolution of sounds and touch…As for today, for instance, the AR and VR redefine the idea of reality and virtuality…The transition of the medium has always been closely tied with the way of human thinking. “Interaction”, “visualization”, “internet”… all of these new concepts burst in the new age of human civilization with the constant new inventions of the medium.
Though it’s not an easy topic to make clear the complex idea that how to analyze the effect that medium has on the culture transformation. It’s still necessary for us to think about what’s beyond these mediums and where will they lead us to.