up:: Tags:: #🌱 # The medium is the message Most people don't realize the medium and context content is communicated through *fundamentally alters its meaning.* For example, in academia, a spoken quote reference wouldn’t be sufficient as evidence. This is because generally written words are seen as more trustworthy in that context. They have been fact checked, are less attached to the person saying the words, etc. But mediums have the power to fly far beyond influencing only the meaning of content. **The mediums of communication used in a society change the way we sense, feel and think.** As Neil Postman describes in Amusing Ourselves To Death, "[Mediums] sometime [have] the power to become implicated in our concepts of piety, or goodness, or beauty. And [they're] always implicated in the ways we define and regulate our ideas of truth." Don't believe me? Think about how you are reading the words on this page. Reading requires literacy, which requires writing and an alphabet of some sort. Humans used to communicate entirely orally. *The ability to read and write was an invention*. To exercise it you had to fundamentally change the workings of your brain. Still not convinced? How are you organizing your day? Your using a clock. Clocks and especially watches didn't become widespread until the Industrial Revolution. **Time is a human invention.** Modern day hunter gatherers--which are our best representative of what life was like before clocks--like the Hadza measure time in terms of activity, not time. Imagine telling your Professor, I'll be done with my homework after three cooking's of the egg. **The informational mediums of a society and how they are used have a profound effect on the minds of its citizens.** Related: [[Hot and cold media]] ___ # Resources [[The Audio Revolution]] [[Amusing Ourselves to Death]]