McCluhan

Marshall McCluhan writes a lot about connectivity and achieving something, gaining knowledge through certain medium. The Medium is the Message is one the foundational text for media studies today, and his argument, while a bit dated, still reigns true. The medium is the message, certainly, how we receive technology and communication is relevant to what we're receiving. McCluhan discusses the use of electric light, " The instance of the electric light may prove illuminating in this connection. The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name. This fact, characteristic of all media, means that the “content” of any medium is always another medium." The electric light is certainly pure information, but I think what it contains so much more, it encompasses the notion of dreaming, for through it we see advancements and groundbreaking new forms of technology. We use light in so many different ways, and we understand different forms of light through so many different technologies. I think McCluhan was right when he said the medium is the message, but I would push him to expand on his definition within it, particularly of the electric light. Defining electric light as information feels simultaneously limiting and expansive; while it is information it also contributes to situations and manipulations of mis-information.