VISU1311: Creativity Blog #4.
Some say that evolution is necessary—that humans and technology relied solely on it; but, if this is true, is there a point in evolution that is bad? Is there a limit to constant progress that, when pushed beyond that limit, we actually begin to regress? In the essay “The Medium is the Massage” by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, there are questions that arise about our Media’s evolution that I wanted to specifically dwell on, which is: the Media’s evolution and extension of its initial use to the influence it has on children and how they grow.
As we look at today’s world through the lenses of television, video, and photographs, we see a world of immense information and truths. This is the media. Media has always been about mass communication and exposure. Thinking about this concept in a political sense, the essay states that: “the oppressed will not stay oppressed”. With the media, their causes (all causes) will run through the nations TV’s—the hidden will not stay hidden and we will be our brother’s keeper; but it has evolved beyond the limits that it was set for. No longer is media the communicator of the world, but it has become many things and now wears different hats that were not made for it.
For instance, the essay talks about children and parenthood and the new parenthood, the media. It states that parenting is no longer relied solely on a mother and a father, perhaps not even immediate family either. It implies that the world, the way that it is mass communicated, is now our parent—our family. When thinking about such a theory, one can see both the good and bad in this shift. The positive is that one experiences opinion and culture. The bad is what kind of opinion and culture you receive; therefore, one must decide for an intermediate—a mean; a determination of good culture and good amount of knowledge of the world.
Though media is something that I am studying for and want to further evolve myself into (and though I know how intrusive it can be) I cannot help but feel scared for the regress that is occurring without the intermediacy of balance with media. Perhaps, it is something that we must work on as students; or, perhaps, it is something that cannot be stopped. Can evolution be stopped? Is there an end-stop, as there is in poetry? Is this theory even true?
