Medium is the message !!

I agree with the statement declared by McLuhan that "Medium is the message".

Generally, people realise Media as mass-media, such as the radio, television, press, and so on, which can forward the information to the public. Thus this, people can understand what is happening on the world. Yet, they only emphasis on what information they can get, they neglect that our lives are surrounded by every things, Media, that delivering the message to us.

The Form of Message

In my comprehension, McLuhan's meaning of media is not only on the scale of mass-media, but also on a larger scale that every technologies, innovations, even, our consciousness can be deemed as media. As McLuhan theorised that Media are the extensions of man, the concept of Medium should be a form of message rather than an expression of content.

I understand that Medium itself embeds the message and it affect the way that we live. Maybe let me explain in the ways of clothing, shelter and entertainment -- some basic needs of us.

Clothing

As for clothing, I will wear formal dresses when I am going to attend an interview. But I would not wear the same dresses when I am going to sleep at home. It is the unwritten rule that we will follow in different occasion. In different places, we wear different clothes and it will encode a message to the others, the receivers, and they will decode the message that what kinds of a person we are. Same clothing itself has different forms of message.

Shelter

For the place we live, house provided a message that we had to organise our clansmen and live together so that we could enlarge our force to forestall the enemy in the past. Nowadays, house is providing a totally different message that it is a place we can get along with my family and take a rest from work. The function of it is different and the form of message is different as well.

Entertainment

It should be the easiest realised that Media, the forms of message are changed in our lives. For example, we, nowadays, are willing to communicate with the others through texting on our smartphone rather than dialing or writing a letter. We are willing to receive the news feed on Facebook and the news app rather than on television.

Our behaviours are obviously changed by Media. Clothing is not only for getting warm and shelter is not an organisation any more. As now I believe that Medium is the message, and I can keep an closed eye to my life and keep analysing on how media affect us.

Student: Lo Hing Lun, Austin