Marshall McLuhan coined the expression “the medium is the message” because he wanted to stress the idea that the medium is even more important than the message it is carrying. A medium can be defined as “an agency or means of doing something.”
According to the Wikipedia page on Google Search, Google is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day. That would average to mean in the USA, each person searches on google 19 times per day.
Google should therefore be considered a medium as it is a platform to acquire knowledge from. McLuhan would say that the fact that Google is handling more than three billion searches each day is more important than the content is being googled. The fact that we are relying on Google as a search engine and its role as a medium is what needs to be observed. Google Search can also be seen as “the intervening substance through which impressions are conveyed to the senses” which is another definition of medium. Google acts as a relay between the questions we have, and the information on the internet. It does not matter what we are googling whether that is “what is a medium?” or “Britney Spears” or “what is the meaning of life?” The complexity of the question or search is of no importance. It is important instead to understand Google as a medium and its fundamental role in our lives to find the answers to these questions the moment they come to our mind. It is a medium because it allows us to continue on with our day by providing us with the information we need. It has even helped me write this blog post!
Things I googled throughout this blog post:
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