'The medium is the message': Watch Marshall McLuhan’s age-old phrase explain the digital age
A two-minute animated guide to the 1960s media theorist's chilling predictions.
Whatsapp or Instagram DM? Facebook Messenger or self-destroying Snapchat messages? Email or iMessage?
The choice of medium for sending a message has never been as complicated.
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan had studied just this complexity as far back as 53 years ago. His prophetic one liner, “The medium is the message”, first appeared in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man in 1964.
The Canadian philosopher wrote about how the platform, rather than the content, impacts one’s psychology in insidious ways. McLuhan’s study concluded with a warning that predicted the dark side of new media in the future, with everything happening at once, and privacy being dead.
The video above translates his complex, 18-page theory into simple black-and-white animation.
For the Brooklyn-based animator Daniel Savage, the context of this video is embedded in current politics, particularly the way US President Donald Trump tweets.
“The fact that our insane president can have a hissy fit and send it to the world with the tap of a screen really says something. Taking a step back to look at the big picture is important,” Savage told It’s Nice That.
In case you’re curious what McLuhan said about his famous phrase, here’s his explanation in the ABC Radio National talk.
And here’s Woody Allen meeting Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall.