Media Reality vs. Actual Reality ‘Subject of a life.’
In the last decade, social media has dominated human interaction. It has roughly 2 billion active users at the moment. The continually increasing use of social media as a human interaction platform reflects a world society today driven by technology as well as mass communication (Kalof, Linda and Amy, 2007). Considering social media popularity among people in the world, it is crucial to ponder the impact it has on a given person as well as the entire society. Although there exists a myriad effect, an obvious one is the complicated facades usually bred by social media, which seek to compromise the real character for the outward appearances.
Human beings have often been social creatures. Social groups offer individuals a sense of purpose. Further, comments, as well as likes, makes a lot of people feel validated by others. The consequences of this are individuals living in a façade realm, which most often result in them developing virtual attributes as well as traits of pretense. The effect is that the aspect of life can lead to altering the manner through which others perceive a person and, in a broader perspective, can affect self-perception. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
A lot of people use the social platform to post their images, which could be events or one’s photos. The result of this is a generational narcissism behavior. The social media technology has dramatically affected the manner individuals perceive themselves since there is an opportunity to aggrandize as well as self-promote. It is has been observed that social media users seek to be validated, admired, and praised. The impact is that due to social platforms, people live who they are not. They live a life that is a virtue and not real.
While the social platform can be considered as a wildly significant mainspring economically and socially, it is purposely for personal use. The platform has, for many instances, been seen to deliver information that is not reliable and factual, while people tend to justify themselves for selfish interest. The misleading information has, on many occasions, been applied by people, especially the youth, without the knowledge that the data is biased. Many individuals have been victims of getting information that is not reliable but continually believe that it is facts since it is published in the media.
Reality has, in the current, been blanketed by propagandas in the social media and other mass communication platforms. People are in danger of using information that is biased at the expense of socialization and media publicity. With the current mass communication, the thing that is a virtue has been promoted in public settings to seem real, considering the way media convey them in society. The next generation and the current are thus in danger of being fed with the wrong information but continue to think that it is valid.
The fact the media platforms and outlets are more convincing has complicated the real sources of reliable information. The challenge is that it is hard to differentiate between useful and factual data from fake and propaganda. The current, as well as incoming generation, is, therefore, in a very awkward situation to distinguish relevant and conceivable information from the vague one.
Society is thus filled with underhand information with the current media publicity. Actual reality has been replaced with virtual reality. People are, for that reason living in a world of lie and not the truth. The world is rumors driven instead of fact-driven. The humans are living a life of self-justification at the expense of the truth of the matter. The society is thus lost in the perception and not facts. Personal opinions have been thoughts reality without researching the validity of the information extracted from media platforms.
The result is increased conflicts among people, undermining of education and reasoning, reduced trust among people, and, most importantly, lack of direction of human life. Media that was previously dependable is becoming an unreliable source of information.
Reference
Kalof, Linda, and Amy J. Fitzgerald. The Animals Reader: The Essential Classic and Contemporary Writings. Oxford: Berg, 2007.