The Medium's Message

Nietzsche's idea that the medium dictates the method of composition really resonated with me. I would even argue that the tools we use to express ourselves not only affect the method but also the actual message. With today's technology, there is grammar and spell check, online dictionaries and thesauruses, there are even essays that I could easily purchase and pass off as my own. The technology is literally changing the words we write. Since starting this blog entry I have made three spelling mistakes, all of which have been automatically corrected by my computer's spell check. And how do you know I didn't just purchase this blog entry rather than write it myself... haha just kidding. But really even in this small blog entry, my writing has been affected by the medium... the computer and its glorious automatic spell check.

Writing on a computer makes erasing what you write so easy. Simply backspace and whatever you wrote is erased forever. With pen and paper, it's not so simple. You have to be more sure of your self and confident in what you write because it isn't going anywhere with the click of a button. When I take notes in class for instance, I choose to use pen and paper because it makes me really pay attention to what I write. That way I don't just aimlessly list points and facts, but rather I comprehend and digest the presented information. I think that Nietzsche's prose overlaps with Kevin Kelly's idea that the screen is making our reading endurance weaker. The medium affects the message and the way the message is received. It is as simple as that. In fact I can feel my endurance decreasing right at this very moment as I stare into this screen...

However, I don't feel that this new Gutenberg Shift is the end of literacy. It's just new. That's all. And it's really hard to complain about this new medium when it provides us with an seemingly infinite amount of information at our finger tips. I just wonder what the next shift will be. Brain chips maybe???