Blog 1

Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” presents media and technology in a way that I have never thought of it before. He argues that the medium has more value than the message that is being portrayed. I had a hard time understanding his views at first because I have always believed that the message coming from the television, radio, paintings or anything else for that matter, is the most important thing. When I think of television, I don’t think about the actual technology of it, I think about whatever I am watching. That has always been where the message comes from for me. Now that I have been exposed to McLuhan’s views on medium I can better understand the ideas he believed. For example, in the video we watched in class McLuhan says that what we say on the telephone doesn’t matter as much as the actual technology of the telephone device. That made absolutely no sense to me because my first thought was of course what you say on the phone matters or why else would you be on it? But then after more explanation and remembering what I read in his article, I realized that McLuhan was saying that it’s the overall “medium” of the telephone that has the greatest impact on society, not necessarily what one small phone conversation between two people is about. Technology has affected each and every one of us and how we go about our daily lives. Actually using the telephone to contact another person has a much greater environmental effect on society and has given us opportunities to communicate that we have not always had. Overall, I think the point McLuhan is trying to make when he says “the medium is the message” is that no matter what the message is behind the technology, it is the use and advancement of technology itself that has shaped and changed us to communicate and function how we do today.