Liminal Wordsmith

McLuhan’s take on media, now playing out on social feeds.

We live in a world where oversharing is the norm and privacy feels rare. Decades ago, Marshall McLuhan wrote, “Too many people know too much about each other. Our new environment compels commitment and participation.” He was talking about television, but it could just as easily describe TikTok or Instagram.

This post is short on purpose. McLuhan’s point in The Medium is the Massage was that it’s not content that changes us. It’s the medium. TikTok clips, Instagram scrolls, even short blog posts reshape how we think.

All media are extensions of some human faculty, psychic or physical.

Books extend the eye, TV the ear and eye, social media our attention, all while shrinking it.

“The living room has become a voting booth,” McLuhan warned. Today it’s our phones.

The medium isn’t just the message. It’s the massage.

All quotations from Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Massage (1967).