the medium is the message

I heard McLuhan's "medium is the message" in my communication and technology class last semester. However McLuhan for Beginners presents the idea in a whole new way that was much easier to understand. The idea of the medium being "any extension of our bodies, minds, or beings". Secondly redefining the message as "any change in scale, pace, or pattern that a medium causes in societies or cultures". By understanding this idea it opens the forms of media to be able to change society and cultures. McLuhan also has very specific and unique ideas about how to classify media. He classifies all media as high or low medium. High medium is defined as "well-defined, sharp, solid, detailed, in reference to anything visual". For examples words, numbers, maps, and photos. Low definition is when the eye needs to scan the image to make it complete. For example cartoons and sketches. More simply high definition is lots of information and leaves little to do for the brain and low definition gives little information and makes the brain work harder. I thought it was interesting that McLuhan defined movies as high but television as low definition. I would guess because movies or films are usually a more completely story where as television is stories in pieces.