Liminal Wordsmith

While McLuhan and Ulmer never met in the physical sense, if you read them together it feels like they’re talking across time. Back in the 60s, McLuhan said, “the medium is the massage.” Years later Ulmer came along with his own idea, electracy, which is basically literacy for the digital age. Put those ideas next to each other and you can see the line that runs straight from television to TikTok.

McLuhan’s big point was that the medium matters more than the content. TV changed the way people paid attention long before anyone cared what shows were on. Ulmer extends that into the digital world, where communication is less about arguments and more about images, moods, and vibes. Think about memes. A single picture with a caption can spread faster and say more than a long essay. A thirty-second video can hit harder than a whole chapter of text.

Both of them were pointing at the same truth: media do not just carry messages. They shape the way we think and connect with each other. Writing today is not only books or essays. It is blogs, TikToks, YouTube clips, viral jokes, and half-serious rants people type out at midnight. McLuhan saw the shift beginning, and Ulmer gave us the word for what it has turned into. We are just living in the middle of it now.