The Medium
is the Massage

I thought this reading was not only interesting to read but FUN! I won’t lie, I do so much reading for all my other classes, and I’m typically not very engaged with words on paper. However, reading “The Medium is the Massage” was not just a reading — it was an experience. The author’s voice came to life through the use of text, images, and design. It felt much more immersive than a traditional reading assignment.

That being said…as I was reading this, I began thinking about how this connect to “Digital Nativisim” (which I’m actually researching for a different class). McLuhan discusses how media is not something that we use. Rather, it affects our life and the society profoundly — maybe even more than we would like to admit. This reminded me of being a digital native because as I have researched, eveything from desired communcaition style, visual preferences, learning habits are affected due to growing up in such a technology heavy society. This is becoming appearent through our senses, habits, social organization, etc. Which is a lot of what McLuhan discusses about media (all forms not just “technolgoy” though).

As a psychology major, this reading lit up so many bells; one of the most porfound being what McLuhan mentions as the “global village”. Instant communication has given society the ability to stay interconnected not only easily but quickly. This sparks thoughts about social identity theroy and how we have different identities and personas whther we are online or not. Additionally, how desensitized we have bcome to tragedy as so much is constantly streamed at once. Our educations system is very linera and segmented as McLuhan critiques…I couldnt help but think about how the the absense of a “media-rich” environemnt will affect children’s development. There has been a large decrease in the amount of “play” in school which is such a critical component of development to children to practive creativity, independnece, and socializing. I feel like I could go on about connectiong to pscyholgoy…which is why I am going to stop here.

I think this reading can spark a lot of conversation. The imapct of media as more than just a tool is something we do not think about as actively as this article does. Which I think is something that we could work on. Because to me, this is not saying media = bad; Rather, media = powerful — and that is something we must acknolwedge and recognize how to adapt consiously.