Debord, Baudrillard, and Authentic Social Relations in the Digital Age

Presenter

Roland Wesley Larsen

Campus

Mount Wachusett Community College

Sponsor

Daniel Soucy, Department of Philosophy, Mount Wachusett Community College

Schedule

Session 3, 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C29, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 3 (C21-C30) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

This presentation aims to engage with, analyze, and critique current-day culture, political economy, and interpersonal human relations through the lens of French theorists Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard. Through engaging in the works of Debord and Baudrillard, along with various other philosophical investigations by other scholars into the matters of socioeconomics, authenticity, media, and the process of how information is relayed, we can come to a better understanding of these things contemporarily, and potentially be capable of predicting how social relations may evolve in the future. This paper will finally present the conclusion that due to our relations with commodity production and consumption, our engagement in social relations is becoming increasingly devoid of authenticity, to such an extent that we are disconnected from reality and instead are stuck within a massively inverted representation of reality where one's goal is not to properly be or to even to claim ownership over objects as it was in the earliest days of capitalism, but instead to appear as if one is and has ownership over objects. This representation of reality can best be seen within how we engage in politics, economics, and even amongst ourselves through virtual communities and content aggregation websites such as TikTok or Twitter.

Keywords

social media, authenticity, social philosophy, alienation

Research Area

Philosophy

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