Marshall McLuhan’s book Understanding Media, published in 1964, gave rise to the aphorism, “The medium is the message.” It is an aphorism which still holds true in the present media culture of the Internet and social networking, according to reformed ex-advertising guru Shane Hipps in his short book Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith. He says that the flickering pixels on our televisions, cell phones and computers alter our lives and shape our faith without our permission or knowledge.
The introduction of the technologies of writing and reading led to a reduction in people’s memory capacity. The widespread introduction of printed books caused people to start thinking in a linear and efficient manner, and this changed the gospel message into a linear formula, while at the same time causing faith to become more individualistic and less communal. Images make us feel rather than think, and so the current age of electronic video and images reduces our capacity for abstract thought while increasing our appreciation of intuition and emotion.
The book is presented in conventional printed manner with only a few pictures, so presumably the author wants us to exercise our abstract thinking capacities rather than our intuition and emotion in processing his ideas. Some interesting ideas are raised, but I am not thoroughly convinced that the technologies we use end up using us. I am more inclined to believe that the medium slightly flavours the message.