The medium is the message and Social Networks: How the concepts of Marshall MCLuhan apply to digital platforms of social exchange between users

Abstract

More than once Marshall McLuhan was identified as “the prophet of the media”, his concepts have revolutionized communication and today they are still applied. That is why it is interesting to contrast the relationships between Marshall McLuhan’s theories and current technologies, with social platforms and personal electronic devices, such as the smartphone, being the most widely used channels for interaction between human beings today. Concepts that were applied to media such as radio and television, today are applied to new media such as cyberspace, a place where we define ourselves again and interact in a way that, not so many years ago, was believed impossible. In this article, the most important concepts developed by Marshall McLuhan were selected, regarding the new communication paradigm that we are living today with the development of social platforms.