"The Medium is the Message"

“The Medium is the Message” is a phrase coined by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan in his novel, The Medium is the Message, which is commonly referenced when speaking about New Media. The phrase McLuhan creates as both the title and concept for his novel, is used to describe the idea that the medium itself is its own separate entity to the messages, ideas, and narratives that are communicated through them.

In the context of writing, a medium is the manner in which a message or writing is communicated through to an individual. Our mediums evolve over generations, from communicating orally only all the way to typing messages and sharing them through the internet. While a message, in the context McLuhan’s book, simply refers to the ideas that the writer of a work has created.

McLuhan’s phrase operates on the belief that ‘messages’, or the ideas a work has, are what influences society but will not surpass the overpowering impact that the medium ultimately has. This is seen clearly with the rapid expansion of the internet dictating the way individuals write and communicate, even causing written communication to reach new territories never before explored. An example of these new communication based territories is speaking with individuals online and at rapid speeds with only the use of pictures and animations.

A problem that McLuan predicted for new mediums like Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, is that these platforms are causing people to be constantly bombarded with information. People’s easy access to information and the ease found in sending this information has contributed to this growing issue. Thus, leading the public to not always read and understand it. “How you convey the information and which social media platform you use will be determined by the audience, so it is important to understand what it is your audience needs to know and why they need to know it,” advice given by the Purdue University website. As a result of this fact, humans are more driven to change their behaviors based on the mediums they use. “Ideas change our interactions; Mediums change the fundamental scale of those interactions,” states Dan Olson states in his video “The Medium Is the Message” in review of McLuhan's novel. Therefore, in order to best communicate with people, we must recognize the mediums that are largely used today and how to adapt so that messages can be successfully delivered. By understanding McLuhan’s concept that the "the medium is the message," individuals will have more control over what the author communicates with these new mediums and the ones yet to be invented.