Chapter 7: Tetrad of Media Effect

From the book "The Medium is the Massage", McLuhan summarized his ideas of media by using "Tetrad of Media Effects. " The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology (medium) by dividing its effects into four categories: Enhances, Reverses, Retrieves and Obsolesces. McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:

- What does the medium enhance?
- What does the medium make obsolete?
- What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
- What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?

Lets start with a few examples. The first example I will use is blogging.

Enhancement: It provides unlimited space for users to write their journal. It also allow the users to insert media such as video clip or music in their blog. Furthermore, it provides a space for people around the world to share about their life. A blog is never a paper like dairy, it provides more function in it.

Obsolescence: Blogging reduces the usage of paper. However, it can be viewed by everyone which means a less privacy.

Retrieval: Our life is getting busier and busier. So it is quite difficult for us to continue the habit of writing journal. Thus, blogging offer a great replacement. It is free, easy to use and flexible. Ones can express himself/herself in blog, or use it for assignment purpose or etc. In a nutshell, it is about sharing of one's feeling, knowledge and communication.

Reversal: Blogging also can be use with different purposes. Students assess their assignments via blog. Some sell their product in their blog. The blog flips into commercial use.

Another example is the Facebook.

Enhancement: The Facebook enhances the meeting of people around the world, providing them to chat and know each other without traveling around places.

Obsolescence: Facebook contains chatbox, comment box and email functions, we need not call over or sending letters. The Facebook group offer a place for meeting and informations purposes, where employees can keep theirselves updated from the upper managment.

Retrieval: The Facebook retrieves the sense of community and socializing. Nowadays, we can see almost everyone using Facebook to keep contact with others. Even my mum used a Facebook to contact me!

Reversal: When the Phenomena of Facebook is over-extended, there will be less privacy and become a waste of time because people started to sit in front of the computer whole day to play with Facebook. A man can have 1000+ friends in Facebook but he may not even has one in the real life.