Media is the New Massage

There goes privacy
There goes time
There goes childhood


I had to read a really trippy book called "The Medium is the Massage". The book was on acid but the massage was pretty legit. The media has become so overwhelming and so forceful that it has taken over everything. You can't go or do anything without the media being involved. Take this class for example. I am required to use social media to communicate with other people in my class as well as my teacher to receive assignments and updates. I truly don't enjoy having to subject myself to social media but it has to be done.

McLuhan states three main points that I could relate too. The media has taken away our privacy, time and our childhood.

People used to live in world where if they had private business it stayed private, it was theirs. But now people literally know everything about everyone. Social media like Facebook and Twitter make it hard to not know everything where you want to or not. Constant updates are being posted to an empty world full of people that really couldn't care less. And yet people post. Constantly. Nothing can be private anymore and it probably never will be again.

And there goes childhoods, out the window with the click of a button. Children used to play outside and interact with real people. Even during the days of the TV children still lived their lives. Now most kids can be found indoors playing on their computer, burning their little eyes out and killing their IQ's. It is becoming harder and harder for children to be able to communicate with other people in person due to their constant computer usage. And spelling and grammar have also taken a toll due to texting.

Time truly is a thing of the past. Free time used to include hobbies like kitting and fishing. Now it includes TV, sitting, watching, texting, scrolling and everything else that doesn't ever bother you to get up and leave your house. It's a sad thing to see how quickly new media is helping us destroy the world we live in.

I found that the way he used media in his book quite interesting. Again, the book was on acid but it helped to prove his point. The pictures were easy to look at and it provided the massage that McLuhan was trying to prove.