The cigarette ads shown in class were terrible, and it amazed me how cigars were shown in such an accepting and good light. I hate cigars, cigarettes, pipes, really anything that makes smoke. I am highly allergic to smoke, whether that be cigarette or fire. My throat will slowly close the longer I am exposed to it, I have even gone to the hospital after I had stopped breathing 3 times. I just cannot understand why people still smoke today, I find it idiotic, rude, and completely poisoning to them and those around them. Then again they will die sooner, so hopefully everyone who continues to smoke will die out and cigarettes will be a thing of the past.
The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects is 160 pages in length and composed in an experimental, collage style with text superimposed on visual elements and vice versa. Some pages are printed backwards and are meant to be read in a mirror. Some are intentionally left blank. Most contain photograph and images both modern and historic, juxtaposed in startling ways. The book was intended to make McLuhan's philosophy of media and communication, considered by some incomprehensible and esoteric, more accessible to a wider readership through the use of visual metaphor and sparse text. Marshall McLuhan argues that technologies, from clothing to the wheel to the book, and beyond, are the messages themselves, not the content of the communication. In essence, The Medium is the Massage is a graphical and creative representation of his "medium is the message" thesis seen in Understanding Media.
By playing on words and utilizing the term "massage," McLuhan is suggesting that modern audiences have found current media to be soothing, enjoyable, and relaxing; however, the pleasure we find in new media is deceiving, as the changes between society and technology are incongruent and are perpetuating an Age of Anxiety. The Medium is the Massage demonstrates how modern media are extensions of human senses; they ground us in physicality, but expand our ability to perceive our world to an extent that would be impossible without the media. These extensions of perception contribute to McLuhan’s theory of the Global Village, which would bring humanity full circle to an industrial analogue of tribal mentality.