july

“The medium is the message” - I think about this Marshall McLuhan quote

When a new technology offers new ways to distribute content - we first often take what we know map it directly to it

E.g. the TV was first introduced - TV show a picture of a radio playing radio

It takes time to understand the medium

creating and destroying; flying cars, roc.camera, july.rocks

When this new innovation in content distribution arrives, we often think we have a grasp on how to use the it - or at least the obvious ways to use the technology are obvious. 

What’s not obvious are often the real and substantial ways to really use the technology- it hides secrets that only become evident over time

This hidden aspect of the medium becoming the message - the unanticipated consequences of any technology really is the key driver - and we become the new world that we start to use

If you really think about it, every time we take on new content distribution channels - we become inherently more different and more weird

Ofc this quote is fairly famous - but what is often missed is - innovation in content distribution technologies offer new ways of distributing content - is what people think this is about 

What I think it’s really about is that people don’t really know the weirdness of the new medium when they encounter it

I swear, there are so many ways to interpret this idea, it'll never get old. One interpretation: embedded in any medium is a claim on power. Obv example: Broadcast radio/TV controlled by a powerful few. Message: We have power, you do not. Internet changed that a bit.

with any new medium first comes an era of skeuomorphism in relation to the obvious first use cases

people lacking vision in their attempts to grasp the new medium will try and operate as they had with the old medium

I know McLuhan for another visionary feat — he’s the one who coined the phrase “global village” well before the internet was a thing.

Stay Curious // iixii // Lazer Technologies // Prev: CoinDesk, Roc Nation // based

When smartphones first came into existence people made horrid websites throwing everything and the kitchen sink into mobile websites thinking people would use software on mobile like web

what’s the most recent example of this?