What you say, or how you say it?
September 12, 2018
First, allow me to explain the reason this blog was created (for those visitors that are not my history professor). This blog is a creative expression of my personal thoughts and comments on lecture material gone over in a digital history class that I attend during the week. Therefore, all thoughts expressed in this blog are opinions, and should not hold any intellectual weight on any person! Because, let us be honest, I am in no way a revolutionary.
The lecture on Monday September 10th, 2018, went into vivid detail about the phrase “The Medium is the Message.” Hence the title of the blog, because frankly I was quite charmed by it. To explain it simply: the idea of the statement is that the way something is said or delivered, is the content of the message, or is at least more important. For example, if the message is kept the same but the delivery changes, the receivability of the message can be drastically altered. Take a proposal: if a man shaved “Will you marry me” into their back hair, most women would staunchly refuse. However, if a man planned this elaborate event that was specific to that woman, then she’d be much more likely to say yes. Either way, the phrase “Will you marry me” pops up, it just depends on the medium for its effectiveness.
I have a very solid idea that memories create static moments in time that claim to hold more importance than any other part of the memory. To me, this is easier to explain, because of course there are things and times that are way more important in someone’s life. If someone can play back a memory from beginning to end like a video recorder, I would be seriously freaked out. For example, I watch my niece during the summer to give her mom a break because she is quite the handful. Looking back at the most poignant memory I have: I know I was watching her as she walked around the room with her toys, but I just don’t recall exactly what she had or how long she was holding the toy before she switched it for something better. But boy do I remember when she grabbed the air conditioning grate and went ham on my sister’s television. That image will never leave me, yet everything before that was not important compared to the whole killed-flat-screen moment. Plus, this paragraph also helped reflect the last point, the emphasis you give describing or displaying a moment are more descriptive of my trauma than the act itself.
As it pertains to the cinematic experience, I think it shows the change in a generation’s thought process. The old movies showed the need for older generations to process things from start to end, and then from start to end of another perspective. However, younger generations want the information delivered in a chronological, all-inclusive, point of view. Take the way Judge Judy conducts her court and the way other newer judges conduct their court. Judge Judy goes from beginning to end with the plaintiff, and then beginning to end with the defendant, versus Judge Faith switches back and forth between the two to obtain a chronological view as certain events happened as opposed to the whole ordeal.
Overall, it’s entirely about how you say things. The words can say a million things, but a persons delivery and actions are worth so much more.