Assignment Task: As McLuhan (1994) notes, "it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association" (p. 9). Technologies have fundamentally altered our human relationships. By completing this journal assignment, you will apply the following learning objectives from this module to an investigation of the technology of social media:
1. Explain how the invention of technology involves subjection
2. Evaluate how technologies are "extensions of ourselves"
3. Analyze how the medium is the message
4. Relate the "scratch" to the "itch"
5. Illustrate McLuhan's concept of auto-amputation with a contemporary example
Your Tasks:
Choose one social medium (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.). Analyze how this platform has changed the ways that we represent ourselves and look at others, by answering the following questions:
c for you and the consequences it has had on your daily life. How has this social media platform, shaped your personal world picture? (Conversely, explain why you have chosen not to use this medium.)
If using your social media platform is the "scratch," what is the "itch?"
Do you see this social media platform as "extensions of ourselves?" Explain your answer.
Do you think that the use of this social media example leads to the subjection of its users?
Do you believe that your chosen social media platform provides a good example of what McLuhan calls autoamputation? If so, please explain; if not, what would be a better example, and why?
How does McLuhan's famous assertion "the medium is the message" relate to your chosen social media platform? Be sure to explain how exactly the medium is the message, with examples.