When I rocked up to my 9:30 Lecture last Monday morning, my brain sure was not ready to understand the concept “The Medium is the Message” coined by Marshall McLuhan in 1967. His ideas are abstract and quite complex but I’ll try my best to explain what I learnt.
First of all what is a medium?
A medium is an extension of ourselves/ anything that conveys information.
Therefore a lecture room is a medium as it conveys that you are going to sit down and learn by listening to a lecturer, it frames your behaviour and tells you what to expect.
As such, clothes can also be considered a medium as it conveys a message about you to others.
Of course, this concept applies to more than just clothes…
Marshall McLuhan believed that:
“The personal and social consequences of any medium- that is, of any extension of ourselves- result from the new scale that is produced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves…” -McLuhan, “Understanding Media”.
The way I interpreted it was –> how we consume information influences what we learn from it.
I believe Dan Olsen explains McLuhan’s ideas quite well when he asks,
“What has had a greater impact on the way that we as a society interact with one another, all the content of every YouTube video ever made or the existence of YouTube itself?” -Dan Olson, “Minisode – The Medium is the Message.”
So on that note, thanks for reading!
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ALINA HAGER 
Hey Alina! Love your post and I can relate to it as well! I was also highly confused ahah. I feel like you had really clear understanding on the topic and your attention to detail made the topic more clear and easier to understand. Also like how you included quotes from McLuhan himself as it gives me an understanding on his thoughts and ideas. Keep up the amazing work 🙂
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Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!
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