Plato' allegory of the cave modernized

(This was for philosophy class and I was tired but wanted to share anyways)

Plato’s cave in modern times can be comparable to consumerism as well as the fluctuation of what is considered “real” in social media.

To me, the chain’s the things that keep us stuck from having a meaningful existence are consumerism, materialism, and, depending on who the person is, the idea of being authentic and "real” can make someone inherently inauthentic.

Explaining my reasoning for the chains more, I will also explain a rising trend in social media, mostly TikTok. There has been a growing trend for many people in Gen Z to be “real”. What being “real” means in this context is the idea of being, again, authentic in a way that is difficult to explain because the idea of being authentic is, in my opinion, hard to determine if someone is truly being authentic to themselves or if the person is backstabbing their “authenticity” by putting a social mask on. The act of being “real” online is creating content that feels “unfiltered” and “uncut”, when really, it can still be manipulated behind the scenes, only providing the romanticized facade of reality.

The way consumerism and materialism come into play is basically the lifestyle people on social media portray as well. This includes aesthetics as well as the types of fashion people are wearing. Even if unintentional, the people who are “promoting” this lifestyle and are portraying themselves as “authentic” are the ones who make whatever lifestyle they live desirable.

Something to add is also the newer trend of Tik Tok Shop, where people are constantly promoting products to you because they got a free sample or because of an affiliate link. To add to the “Are you really being authentic or are you trying to sell a product?” dilemma some time ago, there was also this trend of de-influencing people by telling them to not buy a product because it was unnecessary and how you shouldn’t follow the trend and buy things on impulse, which to me makes the hypothetical chains that keep us from this ascension that Plato talks about stronger.

Again, depending on who it is, there are some things that jump at me that correlate with promoting an aesthetic; it can also promote as well as romanticize sadness or mental illness, which can bring someone down and make them believe that they are “supposed to be sad” to fulfill this aesthetic and lifestyle a person has been fed, which can now chain someone from living a meaningful life.

In my opinion, I believe that in a world where not being able to tell the difference between someone who is truly authentic and someone trying to sell you on an aesthetic or lifestyle is what keeps someone in what Plato calls "chains," these chains are whatever you surround yourself with.

The shadows and images from Plato’s allegory today, I think, are what we consume on the internet; everything is text, picture, or video, and I think Plato would say that anything online would not be real because it's the lowest form of reality since we can’t tell if whatever someone is posting online is authentic since it's just an image that can be manipulated or a text that can have many layers.

I also think that the shadow’s would also be anything that is material and labeled as “unnecessary” by Socrates, like influence, wealth, or a pedestal to say anything non-meaningful, which social media and the modern desire for a crowd to listen to a person’s ramblings reinforce.

Living in the modern day and wanting to live a meaningful life is hard, especially when others find so much negativity and think that because our existence is insignificant, our actions don't truly matter at all. It's all a repetition, and when they die, nobody is going to remember them. In general, it's depressing to think about how unmeaning our lives are. I personally like to think that even with the lows of my life and the few highs, I am quite optimistic about life and what living “meaningfully” means.

I was introduced to Carl Jung’s work in Map of the Soul in 6th grade. Unlike many middle schoolers, I was exposed to thinking about what I do and figuring myself out at a young age. I personally think that if someone does not get introduced to being self-aware when they are still developing, they will have a harder time thinking about themselves when they are older. I was not scared to think about why I did the things I did or why the events that changed me caused me to be the way I am, but I think it’s harder and scarier for someone who does not self-reflect to finally think about themselves and their actions. I think that strengthens Plato’s chains and makes the shadows more blurry.

In my opinion, the puppeteers in Plato’s modern-day cave would just be society, in many cultures and countries they value being able to afford luxuries like cars, expensive apartments, and any trendy clothing, this connect’s to the chains and why they are so strong as well as the shadows that increasingly become blurry as time passes as people change. Its an endless cycle of keeping you in place, of keeping you from having a life that lacks luxuries.

The puppeteers could also be the people who continue the cycle of promoting goods and feeding their demographic with a lifestyle or a desirable way of living (i.e., 2016 Instagram rappers who flexed their money, YouTuber Logan Paul who promotes fitness, Andrew Tate promoting an “alpha male” lifestyle, and K-pop idols that promote a dream). They all create blurry shadows that the general public consumes.

The people who are escaping the cave are the people who have realized that anything materialistic is what keeps you changed up to that faux reality Plato was mentioning, how anything that you see online, even when it is marketed to you as unfiltered, has the possibility of having an undertone that a normal person just glides through.

The escape from consumerism and materialism is painful because it is a type of death—the death of your gullibility. Everyone is human, so nobody is exempt from mistakes, and those mistakes make someone human, but when you are free from thinking that you *need* to fulfill whatever lifestyle you were fed or whatever aesthetic you feel like you need to fit into, as well as thinking that everything online is the truth, then that is the death of the most vulnerable and gullible side of you.

Once you die, when you escape the cave, you can never go back to that vulnerable part of you—a side that is now forever gone, and if it goes without checking, you might end up worse or more nihilistic than intended, which I think would drag you back into the cave and chain you up with cuffs more solid than the ones you started out with.

When checked, I personally think that you will be able to live a meaningful life without being sold anything and without feeling like you need to fit a certain image.

An aesthetic will be just that—the original definition. Materialism does not affect you.

When you can have stupid fun without nitpicking every single action you make because it's not "impactful” while also being aware that there is a lot of two-sidedness when it comes to being fed an “unfiltered” look into someone's life, I believe that when you can have both sides coexist, that's when you have truly escaped Plato’s cave.

Every person is different, which is why, when you run back into the cave and tell the rest of the chained-up people, some are more open-minded, others are more stubborn, and nothing will change even when you tell them about the beautiful sun outside. Some will follow you and break out of those chains, and others will struggle to believe or accept that everything they ever consumed, even when marketed as uncut, is not real.

In a world surrounded by different people who live completely different lives from you, even when we are closer than any point in human history, it also adds another layer to that chain.