The first Matrix movie paints a bleak picture of a dystopian digital future. In this movie, humanity lives in a simulation, and the “real” world is inhabited by terrifying robots that have hooked humans into horrifying and disturbing machines that keep them stuck in the simulation. While this movie was made long before social media took society by storm, it mirrors how we view social media and online content today as acting as barriers from the harshness of the real world.
The simulation in the movie is essentially a shield from the terrifying and disgusting nature of the “real” world. It keeps humanity locked in a perpetual state of ease and ignorance. This, although to a much lesser extent, is how social media acts in society today. There are countless images and videos of influencers living seemingly perfect lives, algorithms designed to tailor to our every need and desire, and an infinite stream of content being generated all day every day so that it is impossible to go through even a fraction. The real world is harsh, cruel, and unforgiving. While the internet can often be that as well it comes with the ability to simply not view anything you don’t want to view. Your algorithm is designed for you and you alone. If you don’t care to see news of war and global conflict, you simply scroll past the video and the algorithm will not show it to you again. Each of us has created our own personal matrix in which to escape by simply scrolling through any random social media site. Just like the movie, the vast majority of us have no idea we’ve ever done so. We simply slip into a state of mindlessly scrolling for potentially hours with no second thought or even previous desire to do so and ridding ourselves from the harshness of the world and sucking ourselves into our own little pocket of the internet.