McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” has served as a pervasive concept in media studies for decades. Since the idea surfaced in the 1960’s, we have experienced societal advancement at the hands of many new technologies and mediums. However, despite recent development, McLuhan’s ideas are still reflected; the medium or method of communication itself has major effects on us.

The concept is so ahead of its time for acknowledging how much technology has become integral in society and in turn affected the course of human development. It is undeniable that the technology we have today has completely different developmental effects in comparison to the technology of the 1960s, when this idea surfaced. Yet, incredibly, the concepts still apply. From a young age, we are exposed to technology that teaches us to process information in a different way. We expect convenience, we demand entertainment, and we grow impatient when it takes a long time to access certain information. We think about the world differently now, and we perceive it differently too. 

One developmental effect and media trend that I have noticed come about in conjunction is lower attention spans and shorter, more condensed media content. Tiktok, for example, appeals to the tendency to grow bored of something after a minute or two. There is definitely a correlation, however it can be difficult to determine causation. Whether it is the TikTok platform that is telling our brains that we don’t need a long attention span to consume media, or it is the shorter attention spans causing the platform to resonate with us most, there is certainly a relationship between the two. 

“What we are considering here, however, are the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes. For the ‘message’ of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs,” McLuhan’s text states. When McLuhan refers to a change of scale, pace or pattern forming as the message of the medium, he was referring to technology like trains and cars. These innovations became extensions of human abilities, allowing us to travel faster, and therefore increase pace. However, with the example of TikTok and attention span in mind, I feel there can be modern adaptations to this idea. Beyond the message that the actual Tiktok video itself is expressing, there is another message we are getting out of it. This message may be that the pace of our media is increasing and our brains should learn to process that information faster. Perhaps a side effect is that it teaches us to quickly grow bored. 

In taking the Tiktok example further, I am sure those who observed its alignment with attention span then placed a value judgment on Tiktok as a medium. Perhaps, some think that the way TikTok has trained our brains to be inattentive during longer mediums makes it a bad app– like it is ruining the attention spans of our youth. However, the text mentions a statement by General David Sarnoff that says we aren’t right to blame the technology, but instead should blame those who make them and those who use them: “We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them. The products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value.” 

Some of these ways of thinking about media effects spiral into a chicken and egg debate, so it can be hard to say whether these theories are right or wrong or what effects came first. It is clear that the relationship between the media and the media consumer is very intricate. There are internal and external factors that come into play, on both the side of the media and the consumer. There are psychological and social predispositions that cause certain people to be affected in certain ways. There are also certain aspects of a medium that cause content to have varied effects.