Postmodernism

Overview
[|Postmodernism] is a movement that is believed to have started around the 1960s. Postmodernism is similar to modernism, a movement that emerged after World War I, but it diverges in a few important ways. There is no standard definition for postmodernism. It can be defined many different ways, but there are some ideas that many people will agree are associated with postmodernism. These include the idea that there are multiple truths and multiple realities instead of one universal truth and reality. This idea acknowledges the diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and perceptions that exist. Different viewpoints may contradict each other but each still has validity and truth. Another idea associated with postmodernism is [|fragmentation]. A commonly used example of fragmentation is the typical television viewer who changes the channels frequently. He/she lacks the patience to watch an entire show or movie from start to finish but needs constant stimulation. He/she therefore only gets fragments of stories. Another theme of postmodernism is the idea that identity is flexible and changing. It is not a static entity; it is determined by a multitude of factors and variables. Postmodernism encourages playfulness with one identity. This is exemplified in [|Madonna] who is known for constantly reinventing herself. Nihilism is another theme of postmodernism due to the fact that it views morals as completely relative. Self-reference is characteristic of postmodernism as well. This is demonstrated in movies such as //The Truman Show//. The movie is about making television. There is a constant reference to the cameras, the director, the actors, and the set. //The Truman Show// also features the ideas of simulacra and hyperreality which are both significant to postmodernism. Simulacra refers to the substitution of signs, symbols, copies for the real and authentic original. Simulacra relies on the role of technology and accessibility to information. Hyperreality describes an environment in which what is real is indistinguishable from what is artificial. This occurs for Truman. He lives in a copy of a world and realizes he cannot differentiate between what is real and what is fake.

**History**
(There is no text here yet.)

**Opinion**
I thought this post was interesting, and since I've taken Professor Baruth's course on postmodernism I thought I would lend a little extra analysis and see if I could find any ways in which our digital lives reflect our postmodern culture.

The first way I can think of is in relation to the lack of a metanarrative which Jess was discussing. The ease with which information can be transmitted on the internet has allowed for the decentralization of knowledge; there is no longer one picture of history or science or religion that is simply handed down to us from institutions on high--instead there is a constant discussion and renegotiation of our picture of these things, often by common people.

The availability of knowledge creates an interesting situation in which a lot of us know a little bit about a whole bunch of topics, but are not necessarily experts on any one thing. This ties into the idea of fragmentation. Also related to fragmentation, the ideas that i discussed in my post "The Internet and Our Brains" about how our brains have actually changed to make us better at receiving a lot of different snippets of information, but not as good at focusing on something like reading a long novel.

Simulacra is dramatically exemplified by programs like Second Life. A funny moment in an episode of the TV show "The Office" features an even more dramatic example of this when the character Dwight creates an avatar in Second Life who has a "Second Second Life"--a literal copy of a copy of his real life.

The final point I would like to discuss is related to Nihilism and moral relativism--in my post from earlier in the semester called Death and Porn I discussed how the internet has revealed to us that some of the things that older generations would have liked to label as immoral and deviant are actually things that a large number of people derive interest or pleasure from (namely, porn and videos of death or violence). Thus, the internet encourages us to continue the postmodern abandonment of moral objectivity.

(There is no text here yet.)

**Future Trends?**
(There is no text here yet.)