"The Medium Is the Massage" Mcluhan

“The medium is the message” McLuhan defines the medium as any extension of our body, senses or mind. Therefore, any instrument of change is a medium. The resulting change McLuhan refers to is often subtle and it is this change that is the message (McLuhan, 1994). At first glance, McLuhan’s statement seems paradoxical. However, my conventional understanding of message as the content is not how McLuhan defines it. He defines the message as “the change of scale or pace or pattern that is introduced into human affairs”. To illustrate: the modern metropolis with its challenges of suburban life and the stress of long commutes is a result of cars -­‐ a technological extension of our bodies designed to alleviate physical stress and to increase the speed of transportation (McLuhan, 1994). In this example, the car is the medium and the emergence of the new metropolis is the message, an unintended consequence. It is these unanticipated consequences that McLuhan wants us to be aware of and warns us about; “control over change would seem to consist in moving not with it but ahead of it. Anticipation gives the power to deflect and control force.”

References: • McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. (pp. 721). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.     Postman, N. (1986). Amusing ourselves to death. New York, NY: Penguin Group.   Mahon, M   Wikipedia. (2012, August 20). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook   Facebook