Response to "The Medium is the Message"

McCluhan say the extension of ourselves is the medium, which delievers the messages from us. Machines and technology are created by human, which are just parts of expressions. He provides the example of the electric light. The electric light itself is a technology and provides contents with different functions. The content it fulfills delievers the message, but light itself also represents bigger images of the lights industry. He suggests "the medium is the message" is shown in two ways: first, it is the content, which called Cubism; second, it is the structral approach that we should look at the medium in a more cohesive way.

The structural approach appeals to the content of the medium are strongly influenced by the ongoing culture at the time. The early medium in the French Revolution was typography with strict regulation on format and rules. Later, the literacy came into popularity, which the printing style starts to change. Nowadays, we are influenced the media around us. With all the inventions of technologies, we should be able to gain control and be able to full use them instead of being controlled by it. The most valuable part of the "content" is the knowledge and meaning that we put into the medium, and it carries though. It is not about the performance of machines.

With created dangers of the media, McCluhan reiterates the content is the most valuable with the fulfillment of human experience, culture and knowledge. We are the one, who should manage and operate the technology and machines. The lack of privacy indivates the falsification and failure of properly using the machine. We should enrich the technology, and the technology should not be taking a active role, but passive.

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