The allegory of the cave greatly relates to our society and the media today. We look through a screen and see blunt information and get almost no context. We can believe what we see if it is the only thing that we see, just as the men in the cave only saw what was in front of them. Once one was shown the light, he was not sure to believe everything he had only known, or the actual reality he just was introduced with. He could only take in his surroundings just as we base our opinions and thoughts based on our own surroundings. If we stick to one outlet for news, information, media etc, it is the only exposure we have and we will then form our opinions only on that. Our media is so consuming, that how do we convince someone else of the actual truth when the majority of their exposure is a lie? It depends on who we associate ourselves with and who we learn to trust. How was the man supposed to trust the man introduced to the outside of the cave?
By taking myself off of social media I can focus on finding out information from other sources, if at all. What I used to even get from social media was mostly materialistic or what people are doing. It never really was inspirational, or making a positive change in the world. It was a form of communication between my friends that live on the east coast, but I can communicate with them through text message and calling, which should be considered more personal anyways.
Jennica,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely, that in order to gain other insights from other sources we must 'free' ourselves from the narrow-mindedness that we view on a regular basis. I like your idea of straying away from social media, or even taking a break from it would be a great place to start.