Are We Distracting Ourselves to Death?

Karen Prior

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

Not long ago, my community lost a beloved young member because of his repeated trespassing onto a dangerous train trestle to take selfies. He posted them with the hashtag #liveauthentic. His last time there, he died while trying to outrun the train. (People take such extraordinary measures to get selfies that so-called “selfie-related deaths” are a global phenomenon. Wikipedia now keeps a tally.) For him and for many others, capturing an experience with a photo, video, tweet, or blog post can hold more importance than the actual experience and reflects a phenomenon that the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard called the hyperreal.

Original languageUndefined/Unknown
JournalFaculty Publications and Presentations
StatePublished - Jul 20 2016
Externally publishedYes

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