Are you a “mediated” person? You most likely are, but just don’t know it. The fact is, ever since the invention of writing, the clever ways in which we record and convey our thoughts have done more than just increase our ability to communicate. They have fundamentally altered the way we experience the world, ourselves, and each other. In this Voices from the Edge event, recorded live at the Foxhollow Forum in western Massachusetts, and presented here in its entirety, Harper’s contributing editor Thomas de Zengotita delivers a provocative look at media, its meaning, and its effects. Based on his latest book, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It, he picks up where the legendary media theorist Marshall McLuhan left off (remember “the medium is the message”?). Mr. de Zengotita provides us with the information necessary to evaluate which forms of media are potentially useful and positive and which may be eroding our humanity before our very eyes. In de Zengotita’s mediated world, the problems of today’s youth, for example, may not be due to violent video games at all, but to the very nature of video games themselves. Take it one step further and you might never look at television the same way again.

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