# Media theories ## Medium is the message It is not so much about the output of the medium but rather how it shapes culture and society Take for instance: **Smartphones vs landlines** * Back before smartphones or Internet, we only had landlines to communicate over a distance. If someone did not pick up the phone; that was it. * With the Internet and our phones, we are constantly connected regardless of time and space, and we even have read receipts, * This generates expectations of: immediate response, constant connectivity, fast-paced communication * The way we live our lives might be accelerated due to these factors **Television vs Netflix** * Television: top-down distribution, and plays an episode only once; if you miss it you will never get to watch it again * Netflix: you decide what you want to watch, when you want to watch, how much you want to watch * generates infinite distractions **Radio vs Spotify** * Radio: you listen to what was playing and you cannot control it * Spotify doesn't give you music; it gives you access to music **Search Engine vs Recommended feeds** * I used to actively search for what I want to watch on the Internet but these days YouTube has algorithm to decide what I think I would like * Subconsciously, I let the Internet decide to think for me **Writing vs auto-correct** A question i posed to my professor was what would happened to society if advanced machines did the thinking for us, and to which he said: "well, it has already happened. Take a look at auto-correct and word suggestions". Isn't that in some way controlling the way we think? ## Post-Cinematic Affect --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.nosleepcreative.com/dev/archive/media-theories.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.