In describing our relationship with actuality, Plato urged that we think about a person, sure in chains, unable to show round and see what was behind him. Sure on this approach, he’s pressured to look upon the again wall of the cave on the dancing shadows of sunshine coming from a hearth on the mouth of the cave.
That is all of actuality to him.
He sees nothing however the dancing shadows—however solely as a result of he’s unable to show to see what’s behind him.
Plato used this picture to problem the boundaries of human information.
In our day, it’s a metaphor for the rising conviction that each one that we “know” is imprecise, separate from final fact, as we’re unable to see the world because it actually is.
The Enlightenment was primarily based on a set of foundational assumptions about actuality, and particularly how information relates to actuality. In the event you say, “It’s raining,” it both is or it isn’t. You possibly can go exterior and inform.
At present’s world says, “Not so quick.”
As Walter Truett Anderson titled his ebook on the dynamics of postmodernism, “Actuality isn’t what it was once.”
The unique postmodern spirit turned its again on the concept that what may be recognized is constructed on observable details. A lot of this was primarily based on the rising sense that nobody is actually goal. You can not stand exterior of your individual context – together with experiences, biases and historical-cultural present – and be free to make an unconditioned statement.
It was greater than the assertion, “That’s your opinion;”
… the concept was that all the things is opinion.
In our present context, this has modified. And for that, you may thank social media. It determines what we see, and what we don’t; what we take into consideration, and what by no means enters our thoughts. It even shapes how we predict.
We now not assume that all the things is opinion; we now assume that our opinion is the one factor that’s true.
Consider the world within the Matrix movies. There the “matrix” is a synthetic world created by computer systems to immerse human minds right into a false actuality to be able to hold them subdued. Their true lives are carried out in remoted containers for the harvesting of their physique’s power. However the matrix is so full, so all-encompassing, that it retains the thoughts at bay and in full submission.
Take into consideration social media as our matrix.
It isn’t solely that the communications we reside amongst deceive,
… broadcasting a limiting ideology,
… emphasizing intercourse and violence,
… conveying diminished photos of the nice, the true, and the traditional,
… corroding the standard of artwork,
… or decreasing language
– all of which they do.
It is usually that they convey all that via a whole saturation of our lives as an image of what’s actual. The torrent of photos, songs, and tales streaming into our lives – and the truth they current – has turn into our world.
However due to the character of social media, that world is like the photographs dancing on the again of Plato’s cave. These flickering shadows form our excited about numerous points, but additionally make us assume that no matter stand we tackle a difficulty isn’t merely a perspective,
… however the fact.
As Mike Mariana wrote in an article for Noēma:
Within the 2,500 years since Plato’s time, his cave allegory has accrued a brand new, arguably extra pressing resonance. Our Twenty first-century civilization is more and more absorbed by a rising clutch of social media platforms and the technological units that function their vessels; a big proportion of the human race appears to have voluntarily retreated to what’s, successfully, our personal variations of Plato’s cave. Hunched over, silent and rapt, these people peer into fathomless web sites and algorithmically pushed functions that glow with an infinite panoply of textual content, photos and movies….
At present’s well-liked platforms — Fb, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat — have successfully turned the cave wall right into a kaleidoscope of infinite leisure, a tessellation of screens on which to undertaking glittering fragments of human expertise. And identical to the chained captives in Plato’s cave, we, too, have our personal bearers: the savvy tech entrepreneurs who’ve constructed their very own model of the wall, together with a stunning repertoire of novel mechanisms for casting shadows onto it.
He provides:
Our politically polarized society within the U.S. has been firmly linked to the social media algorithms and filter bubbles of the previous decade. Our insulated information feeds amplify like-minded posts and suitable views to such a level that we’re hardly ever uncovered to opposing views; moderating voices have all however vanished in an data ecosystem that disincentivizes them.
Conclusion? Such “steady publicity to those hyperrealities could go away human beings with a restricted grasp of goal fact.”
So once more, whereas it was once assumed that for those who stated, “It’s raining,” you may go exterior and ensure that it was or wasn’t.
Now, to find out if it’s raining,
… it’s essential go surfing, enter your cave, and analysis it via the shadows dancing on the wall.
James Emery White
Sources
Walter Truett Anderson, Actuality Isn’t What It Used to Be.
Todd Gitlin, Media Limitless.
Mike Mariani, “How We Grew to become Captives of Social Media,” Noēma, August 12, 2025, learn on-line.
