Simulation, simulacra, and modern modes of escapism: living in the hyperreal

Abstract

The state of the modern world as it stands, creates the perfect conditions to live an imperfect life. Most people live their lives separate from their desires of how they would like for it to be if given the chance to choose. This sense of “imperfection” creates room for twisting and turning reality as we know it to give individuals the opportunity and experience life anew through different mediums, through a “simulated” reality, to escape the reality they’ve known to be their own. This form of escapism can take a variety of forms through art, literature, meditation, and in the modern world through technology. At the very core of these mediums, simulation and in turn simulacra pierce through to make way for the hyperreal. This study attempts to critically analyze the postmodern world and its many ways of escapism to relate with Jean Baudrillard’s work in Simulacra and Simulation and to explore the ways of how modern media controls much of our reality to the point of the current world being a hyperreal one.