Marshall McLuhan and The Medium is the Message

    Marshall McLuhan wrote The Medium is the Message in 1967, which was at the time controversial. However, in our growing digital age, his philosophy is more relevant now than ever before. He argued that electronic media wires people differently, even going so far as to say that television and radio lead to illiteracy. Perhaps the source of controversy came from a defensiveness people at the time felt with being accused of illiteracy. Marshall said "one of the effects of living with electronic info is that we will be living in a state of information overload." Have you ever found yourself with a to do list a mile long, but instead of doing the work you needed to do, you ended up scrolling on your phone, looking at nothing? Does this happen because we as humans are inherently procrastinators, or is it because we live in a state of information overload? 

    McLuhan is credited with coining the term "Global Village", referring to the daily consumption of media, images and content by global audiences. The instantaneous sharing of content can be a positive thing, as we are now connected with more perspectives leading to a rise in empathy and tolerance for groups that were previously misunderstood, for example the LGBTQ community. This of course doesn't erase all prejudice, but it does open up a conversation and awareness. Something we are seeing happen at the same time, which can be damaging, however is certain corners of the internet becoming echo chambers of hate. McLuhan predicted the Global Village would lead to the expansion as well as the shrinking of culture at the same time. As I watch attitudes shift both forwards and backwards at the same time, I can't help but feel McLuhan was right.

    

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