Solipsism in the Era of Social Media and Reality TV
In order to better understand the world, I believe that we should all have a personal philosophy or foundational understanding of how the world works. For the past decade or so I have identified as a solipsist, a philosophical view of reality that encapsulates my skepticism around the reality of anything or anyone other than myself. Freddie Mercury said it best in the lyrics to “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landside,
No escape from reality
In many ways, solipsism reflects the view that what we have come to believe about the world and each other is in fact not “the real life”. The only reality that truly exists is the one that we imagine, and the only individual that we can truly perceive is ourselves. Yet, I exist in a world that is set on reflecting and representing an objective reality full of other people and objects. There is an expectation that we are all performing and perceiving other minds, yet no solid proof that this is what’s going on.
The mediated nature of reality has further complicated this expectation, as much of what is known about the world and its inhabitants does not come through true knowledge but the…
