narrowing down the public opinion;
Inspired by the statement: The medium is the message, in his paper; “Understanding Media, The Extensions of Men” by Marshall Mcluhan (1964), I started my research. To start with, I read the chapter of Mcluhans paper that belongs to the famous statement, and found out that I misunderstood his statement. With ‘ the medium is the message’ he wanted to explain that not the device we use to transfer our message with is the medium, but that the way we design the content of the message is the medium and therefore the message is the medium.
In this article I want to discuss our current way of communicating. All around me I have been hearing discussions about communication through the internet being a lesser form of communication. Even though I agree with this statement, I have no idea why or what I base that opinion on. After asking around in my network, I have noticed that a lot of people have the same problem. It seems like we all have the feeling that there is something wrong about our current way
of communicating, but no one really seems to know why.
But how does this work? What part of the medium makes written messages more powerful then messages send through the internet? For the sake of this article I have been focusing on two variables that differ written messages from messages send through internet. The first one will take a closer look at the (computer) screen and how this infects the message, the other one discusses the psychological differences of interpreting a tangible message versus an intangible message.
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Communication through internet is less personal
The way I interpreted his statement (and with me many more) is that the medium we use to transfer our message with, changes the meaning of the message. For example, at my job I noticed that if a company does not pay the invoice you send them, and you send them a reminder, the possibility that they will pay the invoice. or at least respond to it is higher if you send a hard copy letter than if you send then the reminder by email.
by Puk van de Lagemaat