The Language Virus Disturbing the "Sensus Communis"

McLuhan's medium theory means that the medium is the message and not the machine (McLuhan, 1964, 7). A Medium is not just a tool humans choose to use, instead it actively uses our senses to alter how we perceive reality (McLuhan, 1964, 23). When a medium uses one of our senses it has an effect on our nervous system (McLuhan, 1964, 23). He uses the term “sensus communis” to explain how the five senses balance, however when they come in contact with a medium it messes up this balance (McLuhan, 1989, 69).

After watching Pontypool I understand the language virus as a bug in spoken words (Pontypool). It refers to when a word is being repeated and the brain is unable to decode it, making the person repeat it loses its meaning causing the brain to have a mental breakdown. This relates back to McLuhan's theory of the collapse of the sensus communis due to a medium which in this case is acoustic sound  (McLuhan, 1989, 69). People cannot turn off acoustic sound the way they can close their eyes to avoid seeing something. The minute someone speaks a word that you know your brain needs to decode the acoustic vibration against your will which creates the language virus (McLuhan, 1989, 69).

Work Cited:

McDonald, B. (2008). Pontypool. IFC Films; Shadow Shows.

McLuhan, M. (1964). The medium is the message. In Understanding media: The extensions of man (pp. 7–21). McGraw-Hill.

McLuhan, M., & Powers, B. R. (1989). Visual and acoustic space. In The global village: Transformations in world life and media in the 21st century (pp. 35–47). Oxford University Press.