McLuhan

I agree with Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message. I have always believed that how the message is transmitted, whether it is written, over the phone, or in face to face, has a different impact on the person receiving the message, even though the message would be the same every single time. It seems weird, but different mediums have different effects on people.

The idea that television is a "cool" medium, that is the viewers have to fill in the details, is an amazing way to think about message-medium transmission. How often have you watched a television program and not like it for some reason, but you knew that the narrator was doing all the work for you? For me, it has happened three times this week. Television was not implemented as a way to be told what to do, or demand the view be cognitive while watching. Television was invented as entertainment for people to relax to, or now-a-days, be background noise.

When we watch television, we are not just listening. We are taught that communication is 10% verbal and 90% nonverbal. The 90% is what makes television interesting. Sometimes we are not paying attention to the words being spoken (Kate Upton commercial anyone?), but just watching it, filling in the details as we see fit. With television, we are simultaneously engaged and mindless at the same time.