21ST CENTURY MEDIA: A MODERN VERSION OF THE ALLEGORY OF

THE CAVE
Submitted by: HUMSS 11-18
Paola Ohndreea V. Sabado
Eloisa Sadia
Christine Mae B. Rubis
Submitted to: Ms. Joyce Fungo

The Medias the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent
guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and thats power. Because they control the minds of the
Masses.
-Malcon X

In the 21st Century, we cannot deny the fact that media plays a very significant role in our
lives. Media, through its different forms, has developed a strong hold with the society as it
becomes our reliance as the basis of truth with the information that it gives us and that are
relatively essential in every aspect of the humans lives. But with all the data, news, and materials
that are presented to us by the media, one may ask, how can we determine if these things that are
presented to us are genuine or just purely an illusion? In Platos Allegory of the Cave, Plato
discusses how the prisoners are being locked up in the cave which they only know as the world
of reality, when in fact what they are actually seeing are nothing but are shadows or merely an
illusion. Is media the modern version of the Allegory of the Cave? And are we, the society, are
the modern prisoners that were trapped inside the cave? As the media continues to engage the
society to the innovations of the technology, it is a challenge for the society to differentiate
between what is real and what is not. Do the media really provide us with the truth? Or are we
just being presented with an indisputable lie?

At present, the media constantly provides the society with different kinds of information that are
given undeniably essential in our day to day lives. And it is, needless to say, a prerequisite
especially in a world were media is involved in everything that we do. At work, in school, for
personal necessity, medical purposes, weather and traffic forecasts, and even as a means of
connecting people from across the globe. Information mirrors what we do in our lives for it
serves as our foundation of what is real in this world. But the problem is, how can we know if the
information that is being fed to us by the media is for the better of each and every one of us or is
it just one sided kind of thing? In which the media is the only one that benefits from us, and we,
unknowingly, are being manipulated by the media for us to be blindside of what reality is?

HOW 21ST CENTURY MEDIA OBSTRUCTS US FROM THE TRUTH

Media in its different appearances such as television, internet, radio, and newspapers, are
considered to play a big role in developing our intellect. And as we continue to strive for more
information, media takes this opportunity to offer us more based on their own opinions and
interpretations in attempt to give us the truth just for them to attain high ratings and
advertisements. As the media continues to gain money, we the society, are being misled with the
wrong information for the sake of the benefit that they will gain from the high ratings,
advertisements, and commercials. In this case, Honesty becomes rare as media continues to serve
us with false reports, and enhanced stories which results for us to desire for more news. In this
case, what we see as the truth is but a plain lie. And these things just clearly state that, we really
just cannot trust the media anymore. Just like in the Allegory of the cave, Media continues to
burrow us further in to a cave while presenting and making us believe in the images and news
that enables us to see what the truth really is.

21ST CENTURY MEDIA AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE YOUTH

Social media is one of the most common activities of the youth today. According to Toby Syfret,
a TV analyst at media research firm Ender Analysis 1, New technologies are opening up a
myriad of other possibilities for young people. Its not just watching content theyre messaging
friends, texting at the same time. Yes, it is certain that media really helps us, especially the
youth in developing their self-awareness, their social skills and their technical skills. Social
media also allows the teens to accomplish their online tasks in school because students have easy
and free access to any resources online, also in work, because social media sites have created
thousands of various kinds of jobs. It also enhances their ideas and creativity in the forms of
blogs, sites, and online gaming. Moreover, teens are able to share their thoughts, interests, and
even their knowledge. Social media sites are one of the faster ways than any other kinds of
media. Those are the positive effects of social media in youth. However, we should also be aware
of the negative effects that it can do to the minds of the youth. Media can open the attention of
the youth about different kinds of violence such as those that are in the video games. Those
violence that are just meant to be watched or serve as an entertainment for the youth gradually
turns into a reality. In this matter, the youth is unable to see what is reality from what is not
because those violence becomes a norm for them. Another example would be, the youth tends
to share too much information about them using social media in attempt of being one with the
crowd or following the stereotypes which results for them not to have their personal identity or
what we call their uniqueness. Let us also not forget the cyber bullying, which has been a major
controversy since social media began. Social media lets people to virtually threat others which
may result into a negative behavior to the person being threatened. If we apply this in the
Allegory of the Cave, social media controls the mind of the youth by presenting images which
are incorrect and trapping us into this kind of thinking.

1 Anderson, E. (2015, May 11). Teenagers spend 27 hours a week online: how internet use has
ballooned in the last decade. Retrieved from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digitalmedia/11597743/Teenagers-spend-27-hours-a-week-online-how-internet-use-has-ballooned-in-the-lastdecade.html
3

21ST CENTURY MEDIA AND HOW IT INFLUENCES HUMAN BEHAVIOR

As media advances over time, the race between producers, developers, and advertisers to
produce television programs, games, applications, movies, commercials and other new ways to
catch the attention of the market has gone seriously tougher. And deny it or not, watching movies
and playing games gives us a dose of relaxation and even lets us experience like we are in a
different kind of world. Sometimes, we feel like we are the ones that are in the movie, or we tend
to become too emotional when watching a dramatic scene. Other times, become too excited
when playing a video game or watching movies with violent themes have negative effects on the
viewer especially in aggression. According to Craig A. Anderson et. al., a substantial number of
laboratory and field experiments over the past half-century have examined whether exposure to
violent behavior on film or television tends to increase aggressive behavior in the short term (see
reviews by Bushman & Huesmann, 2001; Comstock, 1980; Geen, 1990; Geen & Thomas, 1986;
Huesmann, Moise, & Podolski, 1997). The consistent finding from such randomized experiments
is that youths who watch violent scenes subsequently display more aggressive behavior,
aggressive thoughts, or aggressive emotions than those who do not. 2
Why do people often use social media? According to Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine
University at Mesa, AZ, one of the reasons why we use social media is for us to be distracted or
for boredom relief.3 When we are bored we usually do Facebook, watch or listen to YouTube
and anything related to social media to divert our attention. While we distract ourselves from
boredom by the means of media we can gain both positive and negative effects that can influence
our emotions and behavior. In 2012, Anxiety UK conducted a survey on social media use and its
effects on emotions. Survey states that 53% of participants said social media sites had changed
their behavior, while 51% of these said the change had been negative.

This clearly says that,

2 Craig A. Anderson et. al., (2003) The Influence Of Media Violence On Youth.
http://www.columbia.edu/~lbh3/anderson_berkowitz_06.pdf

3 Whiteman, H. (2015, June 10). Social media: how does it affect our mental health and well-being. Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php

4Whiteman, H. (2015, June 10). Social media: how does it affect our mental health and well-being.
Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.php?page=2
4

although the percentage of those who had negative effects in using social media isnt that far
from those positive, media can influence human behavior and the more we use the social media
the greater the effect on our behavior and our way of thinking.

CONCLUSION
The Allegory of the Cave is still happening in the modern period through the means of media.
What the media presents serves as the shadow in which we believe is reality but a mere illusion.
As we rely on media and tend to believe that the information it gives is the truth, we became the
chained prisoners.
One may argue that the media tells the truth and that the truth should not be question. With
medias strong power over the viewers they have the control which information they will
provide, it can be exaggerated, fabricated or a very limited information or a pure falsehood
(example were discussed on the body). Too often, what we see, or hear from the social media
today is not all true. However, if someone get out of the cave of the ideal world in which where
the media imprisoned us and accept the true knowledge we can grasp the truth if we will just
believe that someone.
In the world we live in its an unending question which is real from not. It is so hard to
distinguish what is virtual from reality anymore. We dont know what the true story is unless we
are actually part or involved in the story. The only thing we are certain of is the fact that we are
not ever really certain of anything.