Blog 3.1: The Message May Have Been Lost

After wading through McLuhan's The Medium is the Message, I am still unclear if I ever got the message. For me, the "aha" I expected early on occurred in the last paragraph of the last page, "No one can shield himself from such an influence."

McLuhan believes that all media, including the content of that media, is always another medium and that the medium is the actual message, because it "shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action." So essentially, we are a product of our media technology rather than the "content" as traditionally understood.

My basic understanding of McLuhan's point is that the United States and other societies based on typographic constructs are on the verge of a cultural clash with electric technology but remain unaware due to conventional rationale that "content" is the significant force to be reckoned with.

While I think it is important to look at the channels in which messages are being delivered, I can't quite get on board with the notion that the vehicle for the message holds the greater significance. If the electric light's message depends on what it lights, isn't the light's subject the greater influence on the message?