What message is (social) media sending you?
When Marshall McLuhan, the 1960s guru of communication, declared, “The medium is the message,” he was talking about radio, TV, LP records, tape players and film. He probably never imagined Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, the internet and digital everything — cameras, video, podcasts, TED talks, viral GIFS, etc.
But he remains exactly right about one thing: whatever the message, the platform upon which it is delivered shapes the meaning and impact of the message it contains.
Imagine for a minute, folks who could communicate only via telegraph understood the meaning of the words put through in dots and dashes differently from someone hearing the same words spoken over a great distance via a newly invented telephone.
Now, fast-forward to today. In lieu of full sentences, we get abbreviated texts, full of “LOL” and emojis. (Backward evolution?) Once again, communication is altered by the way messages are being formed.