Living in a Postmodern World

Postmodernism is a concept which is difficult to define. However, one interpretation of it is that everything is relative to the person who sees it, and reality has been so influenced by the mass media that our perception of reality has been altered in an attempt to conform with popular beliefs portrayed in mass media. So, by this definition of postmodernism, living in a postmodern world is living in an artificial reality. Since everyone is attempting to model themselves after what an "ideal person" should be according to the media, no one really knows who anyone else is, they only know the stereotype that person is trying to conform to.

However, even though society is influenced by the media in this postmodern world, it is a two-way street: the mass media is influenced as much by us as we are by it. This is evident because the main concern of media outlets is how high their ratings are. They only show us what we want to be shown, which means that ultimately, the stereotypes which society attempts to conform to are the ones that it demanded be shown; living in a postmodern world is living in a never ending paradox.