ABSTRACT
Digital technologies are actually introducing new things for us to do like tweeting, memeing, and gramming. The ability to quickly search through and evaluate great masses of information. The ability to create coherent reading pathways through linked texts. The ability to separate the ‘true’ from the ‘fake’ in a complex information eco-system. Some people just pick up these abilities along the way by surfing the web, playing online games, posting to social networking platforms, and using mobile apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp. A medium is something that stands in-between two things or people and facilitates interaction. The point that both Vygotsky and McLuhan were trying to make was not just that cultural tools allow us to do new things, but that they come to define us in some very basic ways. Some of the things that people do with technology are of earth-shattering importance, things like landing on the moon or mapping the human genome.
