One passage from this reading that really stuck with me is McLuhan’s contrast between Renaissance art and the world of electronic media. This was really interesting to me because I never realized how media changes not just how we see things, but how we experience our role as a viewer. Renaissance art puts the viewer in a safe, distant place. It’s like you’re an outsider looking into a perfect scene from the edge of a piazza (which I had to look up because I wanted to see what that kind of space actually looks like from a third-person perspective). That “vanishing point” style created a visual world that made you feel like a detached observer.

But McLuhan says that today’s media doesn’t let us stay on the outside anymore. It pulls us in all at once. It reminds me of scrolling on TikTok or watching live news. Depending on what we see, there’s no clear line or break. No pause. No distance. We’re not just watching something happen. It feels like we’re part of it. That can be exciting, but also a little scary, especially when it’s something upsetting like a tragedy or internet drama.

Sometimes I notice that when I see something emotional or dramatic online, I carry it with me. It’s like my brain can’t tell the difference between watching and experiencing. That feeling of being pulled in all at once can be really exhausting. I think that’s part of why people burn out from the internet like we’re exposed to so much, so fast, and there’s no room to process. McLuhan’s idea helped me understand that this isn’t just random. It’s designed this way. This passage made me realize how deeply media design impacts how we feel and function. It’s not just about content. It’s about how we’re positioned as viewers if that makes sense.