All media give shape to experience, and they do so in part through their selectivity.
In the context of 'a phenomenology of human-machine relations', Don Ihde, a philosopher, has analysed the selectivity of technology, arguing that human experiences are transformed by the use of instruments, which 'amplify' or 'reduce' phenomena in various ways. Indeed, selectivity is fundamental to all processes of mediation. The human mind is itself highly selective , extending its power to make sense of experience by reducing the complexity and diversity of that experience. We exist in time and space, and our bodies allow us only a limited set of experiences at any one time. We cannot perceive our surroundings with all our sense modalities at once.