Reflection #4 - Postmodernism in a Nutshell

Reflection #4

      Postmodernism

        When it comes to Postmodernism and the Postmodern theory from the reading I gathered that it is in some way shape or form some type of analysis of the internet and social networking. In the article they stated that "postmodern social theory can be said to have anticipated today’s (and even more tomorrow’s) realities and to have provided us with a toolkit full of concepts to analyze that world". With this idea of postmodern social theory they have these people called postmodernist and their job is to analyze the internet and these various social networking sites but they have a specific way that they go about their studies.

       Postmodernist have this technique that they call "decenter" where "they analyze and to focus on the periphery. One searches in vain for the center of the Internet or of social networking sites. They are multi-faceted and always in the process of being made".  They are basically trying to tell us that there is no main center or focus point that you can find because even if you think you found it, that can immediately change. They tend to focus on many things instead of trying to point out one main subject, they focus on a larger phenomena which they call the "long-tail".

      There is this idea in our day and age that we live in an era where simulations are a very popular feature in our internet world. They say we are living in a web-based era that really sheds light onto simulations and they are at an all time high right now in our world. "There is the idea of simulations and the argument that we live in “the age of simulation”. Simulations are copies, even copies of copies. This idea of copies is particularly relevant in the Internet age which is a world of perfect copies without limit". The idea behind simulations is they are not real but they are made to feel real but "There are few, if any, material realities that restrict the ability to create simulations in these worlds. Indeed, there is nothing in these worlds but simulations".

       In the end postmodernism has lead us to believe that "we can be seen as living in a fractal age where things proliferate endlessly and expand like a virus or a cancer. There is no goal other than endless proliferation. The Internet is legendarily viral with all sorts of texts and images, as well as viruses and spam, proliferating endlessly". Postmodernism helps us understand the internet and social media because its makes everything visible for us to see and like I said before postmodernist ideas seem more applicable in our society today then they were decades before when they were thought of. Lastly they say that "we should relate them to new realities in order to help us create a set of new concepts and theories that will not only help us today, but will, hopefully, put us in a better position to analyze coming changes on the Internet and in social networking".
 
-Jordan Radway