What is now known in reality today is based on given information. The majority of people, places, objects, items, are all known through the shown. To be shown is to be perceived through an interface, i.e. TV, computer, internet, image, video. Accessible as reality through a medium outside of perceived space. Where the accessibility of information inside perceived space is limited to location, the use of information outside of perception, without the limitations of location, implies that knowledge is now seemingly limitless. This limitless nature of information, and the increase in accessibility to it, renders known reality useless in a society of information junkies.
We take in only the sections of information wanted, abandoning the excess. If we want to know how massive the pyramids are, we Wikipedia it. We don’t fly out there and see it, truly know the stature of it, we just want a number, and maybe a picture of it, with a person at the bottom; as we know how tall a person is... Shown information is the junk food of the mind, giving us the taste, and satisfaction, without the nutrients and real purpose of the action.
Known reality is experienced, with subject and spectacle in the same space. To experience an event is irreplaceable by a mediated representation. No film, news report, television program or live video feed, can place you in the location of choice. Nothing can recreate the experience, yet now it is common to have first experiences through a mediated source. The feeling of terror, love, loss, even friendship, are viewed not as a first hand experience, but a second rate mediated version of the event. This in consolidation with humans instinctual nature to copy and learn from others, causes emotion to become a hyper version of itself. Less affiliated with reality, but with a cinematic representation. A more entertaining version of emotion.
This effect of the mind on the body through outside interference can been seen in tests such as the placebo and nocebo effect, where the presumption of an event creates a physical change in the body. From curing an illness, to the feeling of physical pain, the mind creates its own future as shown to be. This then with the bombardment of mediated emotions and feelings, can dramatically alter the way the body and mind functions.
Reality itself has then become a reference to the shown, taking the key fundamental aspects of known reality, and applying them to what is seen on screen. As an attempt to recreate reality, the screen merely obtained a likeness, far from its initial goal. Over time its striving pursuit for the real has simply exaggerated and dramatized the known world, as with the screens likeness at its peak, the only progression is content.
By sensationalizing known reality, in a last desperate attempt of a closer representation of the real, instead of narrowing the gap between the known and shown, it divided the two. Where the screen had become a likeness to reality, it has now become a desirable lifestyle. The known is simple, yet the shown is exciting.
By instead of trying to recreate the perceived, the screen now produces a dream; out of reach to the majority, though achievable to the masses. It turned the desire of a mediated reality, into the desire for a mediated reality. Now the screen is the goal, and reality is nothing. There is no desire in a reality that is not worthy of being mediated. Reality T.V. shows, showing how reality is. This is reality. You are now watching real life. Why know a fake life, when I can be shown a real one…
With the onslaught of video gaming, and social networking, the reals hold on reality, its ability for personal contribution, is eradicated. Now people can interact with the screen. The screen is accessible. Yet it is action without reaction. Without consequence. As the recent UK riots have demonstrated, many people today have no concept of consequence. Stealing a pair of trainers, burning down a building or shooting someone, it is simply more points. And when you die, you start again. Yet this is not only a positive action to negative consequence, it is equally negative action to positive consequence.
Whether it becoming friends with, or shooting someone, it is all the push of a button away. Everything is easy, so there is no reason to do anything hard. Spending a pound to win a million. With education costing more than a brand new BMW, a consumer society cannot see past the now, and towards the consequences of today. People are not out of work because there are no jobs, they are out of work because they will not do the jobs. In low paid work, although it is the first rung of the ladder, people are getting paid less that if they are unemployed. Money for nothing…
As reality becomes shadowed by the appeal of unrealistic, fictional achievements, scattered mindlessly in the desirable shown, the life of a screen becomes the easy escape from reality. Though the lack of desire for the real is causing a loss in the fundamental aspects of the known, in exchange for a Super Sized McReality and Coke. The known is now secondary to the shown, with reality consisting of inconvenient traits such as time and space, that can be eradicated in a mediated context. Though with this exclusion are the true aspects of reality and experience that are subtly missed though greatly lost, and with no concept of consequence, the repercussions of this is are irrelevant. Now is now, and tomorrow is never.
Based on a true story.