One thing in McLuhanโs The Medium is the Massage that really stood out to me was, โSocieties have always been shaped by the nature of the media by which men communicate than be the content of the communication.โ When I first read this, I thought it was ridiculous. It didnโt make sense that the thing we used to communicate with affects us more than the content we are consuming. However, the more I thought about it, it made more sense. Most platforms these days have built in algorithms that decide what you see and shape our tastes, beliefs, and even attention span. I think the first thought that came to mind was matcha. I liked matcha but I never considered buying and making my own matcha at home because it always seemed like too much work and expensive. I rejected the idea for over 2 years now but all of a sudden in December, I get matcha TikToks over and over again. There was even a link to buy products. I was adamant about not going into that rabbit hole and just live vicariously through the creators. If I ever wanted to escape, I can just go on other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, where I did not recommend matcha at all. However, I am an avid TikTok user and my for you page has become my sense of humor so I eventually gave in to buying and making my own matcha at home. The videos are short, fast-paced, and visually appealing which not only informed me about the perks of making matcha at home, it made me want to make matcha at home. I didnโt want to make matcha because of the health benefits that would be in a long article, I was inclined to buy it because TikTokโs format made me feel like itโs an experience that I am missing out on.