R4: Postmodernism

                Challenging established ideas and ideologies with a new knowledge and truth is a postmodernism. It is a common act to distrust and question the previous ideas and ideologies that were created by unconscious power and society. However, postmodernism states what we see is what we trust. Therefore, it is important to examine the social media that changes our ideas and ideologies with new ways of understanding of what we believe.

            In postmodern world, social media has changed rapidly. Because of this, people have difficulties in identifying their true identities. Sherry Turkle, author of Life on the Screen, states that “the Internet has become a significant social laboratory for experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterize postmodern life” (180). People are using the Internet as a tool to escape from their realities. As a result, “people frequently move on with incompletely resolved stages” (204) and also, “build a self by cycling through many selves” (178). Turkle discusses that it is not bad to use the Internet to solve individual’s problems. As long as the individual finds a limit, the Internet can give an opportunity to share and create new values. Although Turkle shares that the Internet can be used as a helpful tool, George Ritzer gives an opposite thought and opinion about it. George Ritzer describes in his speech, “The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens” that “the internet is a site of such conversations. It is a world in which there is rarely, if ever, an answer, a conclusion, a finished product, a truth” (Ritzer). Through the Internet, it is hard to find a result. It only constantly gives new solutions which affects individuals to show their true identities in real life and online. Moreover, Ritzer states that we are living in “the age of simulation” (Ritzer). People are simulating of their real life to their life in online. Because of this reason, the time in spending online gets longer than actually spending time in offline. Consequently, people choose to live the Internet world that they have created because it is better than the real world.

            In South Korea, an external appearance is very important to most of the people. As a result, many young women and men decide to get surgeries at very young age. In an online article, a shocking news was shared. It shared that many young people think that they will not be able to get a job if they do not look handsome and pretty. The cause was primarily affected by the social media. As people connect to social media and see other “perfect” people’s lives, they accuse themselves. Moreover, they edit their faces with apps to make a clean and pale skin with big eyes and a small face. A word, ulzzang, was created to describe those individuals who are “perfect-looking.” Ulzzang is an ideal type that people want to be.

Works cited:

Turkle, Sherry, “Aspects of the Self” Chapter 7. Life on the Screen, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1997.

Ritzer, George. "The Internet Through a Postmodern Lens." Cyborgology. The Society Pages, 08 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. <https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/11/19/the-internet-through-a-postmodern-lens/>.