The Medium is Powerful

With McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message," I felt that he said that the medium is powerful if it is used for communication. He said that it was the printed word that "homegenized the French nation" during the French Revolution. He also said that Napoleon "understood the grammar of gunpowder" and that "Three hostile newspapers are to be feared than a thousand bayonets." What I think he means is that as the medium is used for communication, it can bring nationalism to a entire nation and can influence the way people think. He also said that Napoleon payed attention to new types of media such as the semaphore telegraph which gave him a better advantage over his other enemies because he could relay instanteous information about updated battle information.

Today I feel that the medium is powerful especially if it is used for communication. The internet sends a myriad of information out to anyone with internet service. Instanteous online chatting, research materials, the news, email, facebook, myspace, forums, etc. have greatly influenced people by allowing them to have quick and accessible information to one another. I find the internet powerful especially because many people have become so dependent it in the last decade. Just about everyone with internet access uses email as a convenient and faster way to give information to people over sending mail through the post.