plato on social media
by mackenzie smith
This generation’s obsession with social media and electronics are observable from every
aspect of day to day life. Now there is always an app for everything or a new tool to accomplish
a task. Not only can one use their own phone for certain personal tasks, one can also use it to
contact and interact with other people. People use social media to share who they are and
broadcast to the world and their followers exactly what they are doing at that certain point in
time. The social trend now tends to lead to a more materialistic approach when addressing
sharing information online. Users of the social networking sites are looking for confirmation of
who they are by how many followers/likes/retweets/favorites that they get. If the amount of
followers/likes/retweets/favorites is not satisfactory to the subject, the subject may then
become unsure of who they are and whether or not they are accepted.
Plato views art as a form of imitation. He believes that the artist provides a
demonstration that is far from the truth; Plato’s belief of a true representation is based on his
theory of forms. His beliefs show that Plato dislikes artistic expression especially because it is
presenting to the public a false idea of an object, therefore the artist would not be presenting
the true form. Not only is the artist not presenting the true form of an object, a piece of
artwork also allows and encourages human beings to become passionate and emotional about
something. Plato explains that passion and emotion are weaknesses for men because he
believes that they should be “controlled if mankind is ever to increase in happiness and virtue.”
Plato then would look down on social media and the effects that it has on us as a human
race. By being able to access social media we can search and find several instances where the
human emotion is able to dwell on and consider. These certain “stories” from the social media
that appear on our news feeds provide space for our emotions to act on and relate. We then
can sympathize or express passion which, in Plato’s belief, is not healthy or beneficial to the
human race. The other point that Plato makes is that artists present a “false” representation of
forms to the public. Not every “poster” is an artist but some of them certainly are presenting
either a false representation of themselves or a false representation of the world that they live
in. The two examples given can also be used to prove that Plato would not appreciate or
approve of our generation’s current obsession with social media and electronics usage.
aspect of day to day life. Now there is always an app for everything or a new tool to accomplish
a task. Not only can one use their own phone for certain personal tasks, one can also use it to
contact and interact with other people. People use social media to share who they are and
broadcast to the world and their followers exactly what they are doing at that certain point in
time. The social trend now tends to lead to a more materialistic approach when addressing
sharing information online. Users of the social networking sites are looking for confirmation of
who they are by how many followers/likes/retweets/favorites that they get. If the amount of
followers/likes/retweets/favorites is not satisfactory to the subject, the subject may then
become unsure of who they are and whether or not they are accepted.
Plato views art as a form of imitation. He believes that the artist provides a
demonstration that is far from the truth; Plato’s belief of a true representation is based on his
theory of forms. His beliefs show that Plato dislikes artistic expression especially because it is
presenting to the public a false idea of an object, therefore the artist would not be presenting
the true form. Not only is the artist not presenting the true form of an object, a piece of
artwork also allows and encourages human beings to become passionate and emotional about
something. Plato explains that passion and emotion are weaknesses for men because he
believes that they should be “controlled if mankind is ever to increase in happiness and virtue.”
Plato then would look down on social media and the effects that it has on us as a human
race. By being able to access social media we can search and find several instances where the
human emotion is able to dwell on and consider. These certain “stories” from the social media
that appear on our news feeds provide space for our emotions to act on and relate. We then
can sympathize or express passion which, in Plato’s belief, is not healthy or beneficial to the
human race. The other point that Plato makes is that artists present a “false” representation of
forms to the public. Not every “poster” is an artist but some of them certainly are presenting
either a false representation of themselves or a false representation of the world that they live
in. The two examples given can also be used to prove that Plato would not appreciate or
approve of our generation’s current obsession with social media and electronics usage.