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Sidney Lumet's film "Network" (1976) explores the idea of "hyperreality" in an accessible way, where people model their lives in reaction to relationships shown

Sidney Lumet's film "Network" (1976) explores the idea of "hyperreality" in an accessible way, where people model their lives in reaction to relationships shown on television. >"I think this is odd, at least if over done, as if the constructed media representation is somehow evidence of anything true" Constructed media representations, like clips of movies, can still be quite useful for introducing an idea where the evidence will be presented later on. For example, some research psychologists use clips from Ratatouille to introduce concepts about memory. However, I agree that it's unfortunate that people sometimes do uncritically use fictional depictions as evidence of arguments for human nature. For example, Lord of the Flies depicted a highly pessimistic view of how shipwrecked boys would behave over time, and people have formed a cynical worldview from the story. A real-life case of shipwrecked boys in 1965, however, ended with cooperation: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-...

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Lord of the Flies was a satire on a popular genre of books where rich, upper-class, white kids ended up in exotic locales and not only survived but thrived, including teaching the primitive natives how to do civilization. So basically satire on pro-colonial propaganda.
PKop 4y ago
>can still be quite useful Absolutely, no question. And personally I love film as an art form and even I fall into the trap of referencing film as some model for the real world. It's hard to articulate the nuance but visual media/art certainly still exist in the real world, and we have to account for whatever it is they communicate to us, and it is something. There can be something real and reflective that comes from them, some insight on the human condition and (maybe less trustworthy) historical accounts of events. It is just that to the degree something is visual and contains moving images seems to correlate with how much people perceive it as strictly factual or direct representation of reality. Whereas with books and texts people seem to have a healthy arms-length relationship with it being a depiction of a constructed reality or an abstraction. I think there are studies that sharing an experience watching a movie has a significant emotional response amongst viewers where that's similar to real life event. It fools your brain better than other forms. And since we live amidst near infinite quantity of films and shows, while people's actual lived experience of certain types of human struggle in developed world are less than in past, the disconnect of hyperreality becomes greater.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

Lord of the Flies was a satire on a popular genre of books where rich, upper-class, white kids ended up in exotic locales and not only survived but thrived, including teaching the primitive natives how to do civilization. So basically satire on pro-colonial propaganda.

PKop 4y ago

>can still be quite useful Absolutely, no question. And personally I love film as an art form and even I fall into the trap of referencing film as some model for the real world. It's hard to articulate the nuance but visual media/art certainly still exist in the real world, and we have to account for whatever it is they communicate to us, and it is something. There can be something real and reflective that comes from them, some insight on the human condition and (maybe less trustworthy) historical accounts of events. It is just that to the degree something is visual and contains moving images seems to correlate with how much people perceive it as strictly factual or direct representation of reality. Whereas with books and texts people seem to have a healthy arms-length relationship with it being a depiction of a constructed reality or an abstraction. I think there are studies that sharing an experience watching a movie has a significant emotional response amongst viewers where that's similar to real life event. It fools your brain better than other forms. And since we live amidst near infinite quantity of films and shows, while people's actual lived experience of certain types of human struggle in developed world are less than in past, the disconnect of hyperreality becomes greater.