The mediums that we use affect our daily lives in many different ways. In the writing by Marshall McLuhan called The Medium is the Message he says “We are as numb in our new electric world as the native involved in our literate and mechanical culture” In other words, we are so caught up in the effectiveness of our technology that we tend to forget that it is all fairly recent and we didn’t always have these mediums. For example, you wouldn’t go to the library to borrow books for a research assignment today. You’ll most likely go straight home to your computer, or even use your phone to find what you’re looking for.
Furthermore, in order to validate your sources from your chosen medium, you would simply find other sources on the same medium. You justify your works cited page by showing that the works come from “credible” sources, and you determine how credible they are on the same computer or phone you used to find the information in the first place. McLuhan says that “The effect of the medium is made strong and intense just because it is given another medium as ‘content.'” Books and articles are made more popular through the use of more efficient technology through advertisements and recommendations. It’s more likely you’ll hear about the articles you need to write your papers through a school database on a computer than looking in physical books for snippets of information you’d need to complete your assignments. This shows how important our choice of medium is in modern day life. Some people can’t even find jobs without the right kinds of mediums to give them the information they need to see their schedules or discover the job postings. Stores still show that they’re hiring but most of them nowadays say you need to apply online, so if you don’t have a computer or wifi you have to find a place that does otherwise you’d have no chance at being hired. Our mediums are becoming more and more about always being accessible regardless to what time it is. This is also important because it shows how it can numb our brains to information. We see so much of it at once that we don’t have to care about all the stuff that happens due to our limited capability of retaining information and caring about it. But these mediums make us feel like we need to know all the information out there all of the time.