“The medium is the message.”

When we think of McLuhan, this is the term that we recognise him with coining. It has many possible ways of being interpreted. Another quote from McLuhan is actually the title of his text, “The Medium is the Massage.” It is in this title that I find McLuhan’s association with a medium and the physicality of the body to be quite interesting indeed.

If TV were to be consensually chosen as the medium of discussion, then it is quite easily noticed as to how TV “massages” the viewer. I know that whenever I sit down and begin to watch TV, it begins as critical viewing. I sit and watch--absorb all of the commotion I see--in a critical fashion. Instead of laughing at the pun that is so cleverly imbedded in the superficial layer of the show, I find myself laughing at that mere fact that I’m watching such crappy TV in the first place. It’s after about thirty minutes to an hour of good critical, and somewhat cynical, viewing that I, like most, slip into a state of catatonia--frozen in front of the TV, and allowing it to gently stroke my mind like I would stroke a cat’s back. This is an example of McLuhan’s message of the medium acting like a massage. It is the mediums ability--whether it’s TV, fire, a light bulb, or letters on a piece of paper--to numb our minds into accepting their foreign aspects of being, by mentally stroking us off; massaging us into complicity.