For the most part, I disagree with McLuhan’s message of “the medium is the message”. If I understand correctly, McLuhan is trying to say that the medium in which information is presented, is more important than the information itself. While I agree that the medium is extremely important, I don’t necessarily believe it to be more important than the actual information. Although the medium can be highly influential as it is the first thing you are likely notice, I believe most people will be able to get past that and see what truly is being communicated to them. However I feel that good use of the medium will definitely enhance the message. I also think that McLuhan says that the media has had a large effect on society and that I agree with. I also understood and agree with the whole section about professionals and amateurs, how being an amateur can have an advantage because you are able to think outside the box and therefore are more likely to discover something new. I have found that a lot of things McLuhan says in his book are very hard to understand. I wouldn’t say the ideas so much are difficult but mostly the way in which he explains it, specifically his choice of words or sentence structure. I think McLuhan could have definitely gotten his message across easier with a more friendly writing style. To be honest, reading this has been a frustrating experience for me. Although it may have been obvious, I am not entirely sure his stance on technology or media itself. Is it something he likes or dislikes? It is probably explained in the text but I was unsure. Another issue I had was that I could not distinguish a clear structure in the book; it sometimes felt to me that the topics came in random order. I wish I had more specific things to ask the author but I think that is a testament to how little I was able to pull from the readings.
I think there are many