The Medium is the Message (or the Matrix)
- Caitlin McDonough
- Jan 28, 2021
- 3 min read
Keywords: media, medium, Matrix, Marshall McLuhan, storytelling
How would The Matrix be different if it weren’t a film?
If The Matrix were a novel, would you know the Matrix wasn’t reality before Neo found out? Perhaps it wouldn’t be as convincing because of the strange characters, or things would be overexplained to you through text instead of facial cues.
If The Matrix were a TV series, how many episodes would it take for the real world to be revealed to the audience? The directors might choose to wait till the end of the first season for the big reveal, and by that time, most of the audience would already know the truth because of the weird green filter on everything. Or maybe the story would start at the end, just to confuse you even more.
If The Matrix were a video game, wouldn’t you be in multiple simulations? Playing a character in a simulated world…in another simulated world, wouldn’t that offer some interesting commentary on media and video games? Perhaps the secret of the Matrix would be even more devastating because you would feel like you’re really Neo, or maybe it would have less of an effect because it would feel like a simulation either way. (Or maybe Neo would want to break out of your TV because he’s not in control…)
“I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.” – Neo Image: Goalcast.com
In all of these cases, the story of The Matrix film is exactly the same, but the medium has changed, altering our perception of the original story. From a visual and oral two-and-a-half-hour-long film, to words on a page, to a serial drama, to an interactive video game using all of the previous senses together: the medium remains the message in each scenario.
To Marshall McLuhan and generations of media scholars after him, “the medium is the message,” meaning that the content of a story is not as important or impactful as the medium itself that the story is being told through (1). McLuhan considers the content in relation to “the medium and the cultural matrix within which the particular medium operates,” just as the story of Neo takes place on screen inside a Matrix, which was produced during our own unique cultural matrix in 1999 of growing technology and the rise of the Internet (3). Imagine how much the fear of the world ending or stopping in the year 2000 because of Y2K increased after the release of The Matrix. But in comparison to now, when we have extensive knowledge of computers, the Internet, video games, and even virtual reality, that fear of Y2K seems laughable. Our mediums are constantly changing, which in turn changes the way our society thinks and operates. McLuhan’s message from 1964 stays relevant because of our ever-changing media, even though the messages might be similar.
McLuhan also offers an interesting description of media as extensions of ourselves. Just as the hammer is an extension of our arm or hand, books are extensions of our thoughts. Movies extend our visual imagination, and interactive media extends us even further. Our cell phones, originally just an extension of our voices, are now extensions of many different facets of ourselves.
With sarcastic tweets acting as short extensions of our inner thoughts reaching out to our few loyal followers or videos gone viral reaching millions, social media extends us in ways that are somewhat unnatural in comparison to media before it. The permanence and wide reach of social media are especially unnatural in comparison, but these things are now the norm of the generations who partake the most in social media. Cancel culture exists as a result of these factors in this medium, causing us to ask questions about morality, forgiveness, and what it means to be human.
These new media are vastly changing the way our brains work and the way we live our lives, but no matter what the medium, we’re always discussing what it means to be human.
Header image by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels.com
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