For my digital artifact, I chose to use Instagram as my platform. How original, right?! I always joke about “getting the picture for insta” or when being challenged “gotta do it for the gram.” These are all jokes we make today because we are aware that much of what we see on Instagram, amongst all the other social media platforms, is just a simulation of reality.

“Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.” – Baudrillard

While we are aware that image editing takes place, we do not actually know what is being changed about an image. The article I found to support this weeks topic has a nice example that I would also like to use.

Now, I do not want to dive into what has been changed about this image but rather the fact that the altered image on the right, looks perfectly normal. If I saw this online I would not question that this is a real image but the concept of (wait for it…) framing has taught me to not believe everything I see posted online. My frame is that of growing up in a social media centered generation where altering images is “normal.”

Hyperreality is essentially the inability for us to comprehend what is an is not real. This layer of editing is just an extension of the image that we can not see without the raw image in comparison. In the modified image, reality and hyperreality are blended. (Just like they blended her skin in the edited image *ba dum tss!*)

What are your thoughts on hyperreality and social media? Should we accept that hyperreality is what we get when we log on, or should we expect more authentic images?

Unknown's avatar

Published by carsonwhitford

4 thoughts on “Is this reality?”

  1. Nice post Carson! I am guilty of what the kids call “Do it for the grammm!!” as we all are at some point in our lives. Social media gives us this assumption of how life is supposed to be and how we are supposed to live it. Sometimes we may even see something online that we know in our gut is/isn’t true, but we don’t allow ourselves to believe it. For example, when a rapper XXXTentacion was killed and his body was laying lifeless in the car, I still believed it was a hoax. That this was some scheme for his next album to go platinum. How do you think we can condition ourselves in today’s day and age to separate what is reality and what is just filling up space on social media? Check out my post as I touch up on the same issue in this modern world. https://kennycichon.home.blog/2019/05/12/youre-popular-or-are-you/

    Like

    Reply

  2. Wow, your post is really cool. I find it interesting how people would label “lying” as a deal breaker in any kind of human relationship, however in an online space like Instagram editing and changing reality to make it seem spectacular is common place – In fact if you don’t change what is real, you’re probably not “gramming” properly. I think people expect things online to be fake (to an extent), but I also believe the head and the heart are two different things. Just because we logically know it is fake, does not mean that we still don’t look at models and want to be as perfect as them – even though they are not real. I wrote my post on MakeUp and the Mask this week, so similar ideas behind both of our blogs. I like how you added a question at the end of your post, and links in too – I will consider changing my formatting because your style is awesome! Thankyou so much for this teaser of a read!

    Like

    Reply

  3. Hey Carson, your blog post for this topic was great! I too am an Instagram user and can totally relate to you in that I am often caught mimicking the “do it for the gram” phrase whenever myself or my friends are caught out taking our b a s i c photos. Social media, and in particular, Instagram is a platform that creates an illusion of a ‘perfect’ life – masking reality. I love your choice of example as it is very relatable in that nowadays editing an image is a normal part of the sharing process for everyone to some extent, whether that be adding a filter or completely photoshopping an image. The article ‘Hyperreality and Implosion’ (https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-baudrillard-9/) was a great help for my own post for this topic and brings up a relevant point to your post in that “we can no longer tell the former reality from hyperreality, and we wouldn’t know if reality returned.” This statement puts forward that we are so conditioned to viewing this Instagram hyperreality that we wouldn’t realise if the old reality returned and it really brings up the question of how could we distinguish the two on our social media platforms?
    Overall a really great blog post! 🙂

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment