Advancements in technology of communication, he states, are the driving force behind societal change - not what is being communicated. For example, the landmark advancement of the creation of written word is not defined by the words written, but how the technology changed the cultures it was introduced into. The actual content of a piece of technology is not what proves what it means, but the technology is defined by the way it interacts with society as a whole. Throughout his source text, McLuhan states that the message of the medium is the “change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs”. For example, in the book Understanding Media: Extensions of Man, he relates the concept to electric light, calling it “pure information”. McLuhan applies the statement to a number of technologies, mediums, and social and historical contexts. Though expanded upon throughout the book, the phrase “the medium is the message” means that content and medium are intertwined, so the central message or effect of something is not in the content it carries, but in the way it is presented.
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