Impact of Digital Tools and Message

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Digital Tools and Message. Answer: Introduction: The phrase The Medium is the Message quoted by Professor Marshall McLuhan speaks about the strength of a medium to influence the thoughts and views of a mass. McLuhan is known for quoting such things about a particular fact in a way that he had been considered as predicting the future. Sometimes, his works had been viewed as some kind of theory extract with is far from the practical lives of people. But, the widespread impact of his different quotes and criticisms on various topics made him a popular critic. Talking about the medium, we can see that the medium could be any medium like the Electronic Medium or Print Medium. It is the skill of a particular medium which defines its strength to move our thoughts. These skills could be categorized as 7 Cs and 4 Ss as described by MANAGE.(Management, n.d.). Out of various types of available print media, newspaper is the most influential one. It consist of various things like the political stories, various articles on important issues, accidents and cases in the country, sports activities etc. Thus, newspaper can be considered as a volatile source of information. Not only the present generation, but its reliability can be seen from every generation. Electronic media on the other hand lost it power to some extent. However, television has still got its rule. Internet sources, most particularly social networking sites, are most widely acceptable. The internet media influences our thoughts and views in the most impactful manner. One of the researches on human behavior says that digital tools have also impacted the way of education to a great extent.(Purcell, et al., 2013). It influences our way of thinking. For e.g., when we read about Donald J Trumps presidency, and read negative things about the person, our brain automatically creates an image of the personality we read about. People start relying on what they are made to read and hear and start believing things and consider that their own perspective. One more influential medium are the people themselves. Mouth publicity creates an important impact. One of the most relatable examples for this is the publicity of movies. This culture has been well explained by Adrienne L. McLean in his article Media Effects-Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture and The X-files(McLean, 1998). The creators advertise their movies in such a way that we automatically form a good picture of a movie in our mind and that depends on the influencing capacity of the medium with which it is being publicized. That good picture of the movie attracts a greater percentage of people and does it business. The post theatre opinion impacts the business to a very little extent. Every medium has its own good and bad influences. Talking about the internet, when more than normal amount of time is spent in front of computers, a number of health issues may arise. Obesity, poor vocabulary, poor social skills and addiction for electronic gadgets etc. are a major concern for the youth. The reason is over reliance to online media. Every day or the other we read news about phone blasts due to overcharging or eye and ear impairment problems. These problems will keep on increasing because of over reliance on online media. On one hand, people find online media as an easy and convenient way to connect and communicate with their near and dear ones. On the other hand, it is eating up the caliber and youth of the young generation which stimulates them to indulge in useless issues and carries away the concentration and zeal for career. Canadian youth claim the Internet as a defining part of their culture and an integral part of their daily lives.(Health, 2003). Thus, the inf ormation is a kind of wealth which is being copied by varied resources. Whether good or bad, it is impacting our lives to the greatest extent. One more examples that can be quoted about the power of medium is the ever rising involvement of people in social causes. A soul shaking incident which happened in India in 16th Dec, 2012 named by the countrymen as Nirbhaya Case is a good example. The case depicted how influential is the power of media. It took women security and safety to another level. The involvement of mass for the cause and the final judgments in favor of the victim followed by a revival in the law about women safety showed one of the strongest impacts of media power. The enthusiasm built by the media both electronic and print and reaction showed by people created an epic moment for the nation.(Sharma, 2016) Concluding the topic here, the power of any medium has been witnessed by us many times in our lives. For some people it created a great honor in their lives particularly for the celebrities. How anyone would have known Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise without they being popularized by various mediums. Thus, medium does affects everybodys life in some sense or the other. Important is to understand the positive aspects and ignore the negativity. The author in his writings also tried to defend the medium and bring the positive aspects to the people. The criticism about the wrongdoers is also worth noticing because one rotten mango spoils the whole baggage. However, we cannot ignore the importance. (McLuhan, 1964) Bibliography Health, P. C., 2003. Impact of media use on children and youth. [Online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/ [Accessed 26 January 2017]. Management, N. I. o. A. E., n.d. Writing for Print Media, Hyderabad : National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) . McLean, A. L., 1998. Media Effects: Marshall McLuhan, Television Culture, and "The X-Files". [Online] Available at: https://www.ravenndragon.net/montgomery/mcluhanxfiles.pdf [Accessed 26 January 2017]. McLuhan, M., 1964. Understanding Media: The Extension of Man by Marshall McLuhan. [Online] Available at: https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf [Accessed 27 January 2017]. Purcell, K., Buchanan, J. Friedrich, L., 2013. The Impact of Digital Tools on student writing and how writing is taught in schools. [Online] Available at: https://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_NWP%20Writing%20and%20Tech.pdf [Accessed 27 January 2017]. Sharma, M., 2016. 16/12 Nirbhaya Rape Case: An Incidence Which Shaken Up Whole Delhi Full Story. The Indian Tribune, 16 December.