The digital world is evolving around us day pass day, this ecosystem around us has something to amaze us about. Going back in time there is a theory by one of the well renown names in the media industry Marshall McLuhan, he was a Canadian philosopher. He was known for his theory termed the Medium Theory which is greatly used in the field of Media.
Communication is something that can happen in several ways. Expressing yourself with the help of social media by posting quotes, songs, poems, images, emojis, blogs, etc. These are some easy ways to communicate what and how you feel about a certain thing or topic to your audience. This is nothing but a medium of expression and communication. For that Marshall McLuhan had a concept of Hot and Cold media which is a simpler way to understand media. Both hot and cold media are divided into two segments. Both Hot and Cold media have some significant examples that we use in our daily lives like E-books, radio, films, podcasts, and more. Whereas on the other hand is cold media which has some eye-opening examples as well like cartoons, telephone, speech, virtual reality, television, and more.
In today’s time we use all these facilities very conveniently and everything is just one click away whether it is hot or cold media. Just like that, I feel things are services switching online has really supported humans and has made life much for convenient in general. One of the most recent examples includes the air quality levels back in the capital of India, Delhi. All the Indian and international news channels are talking about the air quality levels of Delhi at the very moment and the air quality levels are significantly being compared to other country’s capital. As per the news, all schools have been switched to online just like it was done during the Coronavirus outbreak back in 2020. Since the air quality levels deteriorating at a rapid speed the school has decided to go online which is definitely a wise move. During such times we understand how much leverage we have gotten because of the media rapidly growing, because of applications like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom offices and schools are able to run usually and the world is just not stopping because of such outbreaks or minor issues which keeps on taking place off and on. Like some great said “learning should never stop”. And I feel that technology today has taken over a million things. There are many other things besides the offices and schools going online, one of the examples is online banking, virtual experiences like education fairs which have gone online, virtual parties, and other celebrations.
This clearly shows that whether it is a happy or a sad time phase media always stands strong like a pillar with humans. It is true media and technology have been an integral part of our celebrations and griefs. But to use it wisely is in our hands!
It is interesting what you say about how schools and offices going online. It has me thinking that even now when Covid isn’t so prominent in our lives like how it was, schools and workplaces are still using cold media like zoom and Teams for example. People often say that they are ‘working from home’ and usually this will mean that they will be taking calls and using zoom instead of going into the office. Before Covid this was not as common to work from home but during Covid when people were forced to do this it showed that it can still be efficient so it has carried on a few years down the line.