Medium is the Message

In 11th grade, I read a similar passage titled, "The Medium is the Metaphor," by Neil Postman.  At the time, this piece became my nightmare because I had not idea what it meant and struggled to write a paper on it.  Yet now, after reading McLuhan's original text, I have a better grasp on what exactly this means.  Simply put, whatever medium you use to present something will directly affect how an audience views it.  People try to make a huge fuss about content when it usually doesn't matter and is somewhat irrelevant.

I find this best example in the Twilight series.  The books became popular when I was in middle school, and all of my friends and I read them.  Sure the books could never be considered "literature," but they were enjoyable and became a popular phenomenon worldwide.  Their fantasy aspect was minute compared to other books of its kind, which provided a space for readers to relate to the story.  Yet, when the movies came out, the popularity of Twilight kind of backfired.  Immediately, parodies were made and critics talked about how horrible the movies were, and couldn't believe anyone would be interested in a story about a sparkly vampire.  Most of my friends who had enjoyed the books, then turned and went along with the popular opinion to say the entire Twilight franchise was bad.  When this happened, I became quite frustrated because people who had loved the books now claimed they were the worst books of all time and didn't understand why people would read something so unsubstantial compared to everything else available.  It was only after the story was presented through a different medium that people responded to it differently.  Had the books never been released, but instead transformed into screenplays, maybe people would've thought the plot was equally terrible.  It was fascinating to witness the majority change in mindset of something accepted as beloved and interesting led to author Stephenie Meyers receiving death threats, simply because the story was displayed in a different medium.  I stand by my original love of the books, accept them for exactly what they are, and can differentiate them from the mediocre acting in the movies that people love to criticize.

"Everything Wrong With Twilight"