Has Digital Age Altered Perception of Reality?

In this ever-updating digital age, some are wondering whether we’re losing our grip on what’s real and what isn’t. Radio Australia wrote a piece on this line of thinking, quoting pop culture expert, Trustee Professor and director of the Newhouse Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, Bob Thompson. While he doesn’t debunk the idea, he says that the digital world ties in with the real one.

“There is certainly nothing categorically wrong with artificiality,” he told the publication. “Art is artificial by definition. When we read a novel or a poem or watch a fictional television show, that stuff is all contrived. Take some of these dating shows, for example. ‘The Bachelor’ is filled with people behaving inarticulately, stupidly, insecurely. But when you think about it, courtship in the 21st century is filled with insecurity, stupidity and inarticulate communication.”