“The Medium is the Massage”

Marshall McLurhan’s book of “The Medium is the Massage” is a wonderful view of what media would eventually form into.  The book attempts to show the reader how the media is changing and how some people have to just face the facts pretty much.  He takes the reader far back in time explaining how the phonetic alphabet started and what it did for us, communication wise, but how it limited us creatively.  He brought something to the readers’ mind that was very interesting.  He said that the phonetic alphabet only helps us to understand visually in a world that isn’t just visual.  This book is a collection of interfaced concepts and ideas that he uses to provoke the reader to think outside of the box.

I must say McLurhan was a very brave person for what he did.  This book I must admit was a little before his time.  He saw something that obviously everyone didn’t see in the nineteenth century.  Although it is more evident now that the media is changing the way we think and the way we live, we still have those who oppose the media.

I agree with most of the concepts that McLurhan showed. There is one I must disagree with though.  He said something about how in this society the parents aren’t the prime role models but we are influenced a lot by outside forces.  It is true we are influenced by outside forces, the people who have access to that type of mass communication.  However, I think that our parents are still the ones who we learn the most from, while in their house.  Look at people who aren’t able to receive that type of technical advancement, who are those people being influenced by? 

McLurhan seems to take up for the youth during his time.  Because he knew that depriving youth of technology in fear of the advancement of technology would be inevitable. 

As Marshall said it is the environment that we create that is our medium. We change daily and that is inevitable.

“Change is inevitable. The only human institution that rejects change is the cemetery.” –Anonymous

The media helps with that change in positive ways.  It pulls away those traditional boundaries and allow humans to express themselves freely.  Although time has changed, his view of the media is still relevant, it is still issues that we face; media is still progressing as we speak because “the medium is the massage.”