Media and humanity are extremely intertwined today. Smartphones created a whole new beast when it comes to media, combining the old technologies of the past into one small piece of metal and plastic. The phone, radio (music), the access to the internet, it all created a new way of life. McLuhan even suggested that we are now in a society that has done away with the individual privacy and now everyone has become part of a mass audience (in the past, they would be referred to as the public).  Media creates new environments for people, as “all media work us over completely”. The pervasiveness of media in the personal, economic, psychological, ethical, and political, changing the mass audience’s way of thinking. McLuhan writes, “All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical”. Media can make people connect to others much easier and it can serve as a conduit for imagination and creativity. Artists have been using different media for centuries now, first the canvas and now the screen to display their work and to create.

There are hazards that encompass the media we are surrounded with. Looking at social media now is one such example. It lets people connect with each other, join groups of like minded people, or even lets us express ideas and show our lives to others. But these same virtues can be twisted to something evil. Misinformation, bullying, cancel culture, hackers. These are all dangers that are present along with the good that it brings. McLuhan has some images up of feet, wheels, eyes, books, clothes, and skin, creating a connection between them. “The book is an extension of the eye”, shows us how we can each perceive something different from the same thing. Advancements in technology has allowed for easy access to similar things. We can all laugh at the same popular Squid Game memes, we can all read the same reading assignments for class, but we all come to different conclusions, different interpretations of the same thing. In the past, wars were fought over religious texts.

“The media is the message”. By virtue of existing, different styles of media can carry messages differently. A book, for example, sometimes gets converted into terrible movies. Or a comic book can launch a billion dollar industry. Artists are the creators of media, from the Mona Lisa to a TikTok video, all artists have to choose how they want to display their work. Posters are always a good way to advertise/design/draw, but if an artist chooses to use social media, they can achieve more success if it goes viral. This is where the designers are slaves to the media. A very realistic painting can be overshadowed by a 5 second video that millions of people share with each other. There are only so many different creative avenues to use, and sometimes choosing one over the other. Designers who take on clients might only be allowed to use posters when they know that a video would be better. Media alters the environments that we live in. Propaganda was used to unite a country against another, and designers of today might have ethical choices to make when designing for corporations with a bad history of abuses or something (like Nestle and their “water is not a human right stance”, those jerks).