The Postmodern Embrace 3

Around the time of the OJ trail, another trend was getting stronger in pop-culture: “reality television.” Forms of reality programing have been around as long as TV, of course… news, game shows, community talk-shows, and other forms. But with MTV’s “Real World” and shows like “Big Brother” and “Survivor” a new genre was emerging. Using the conceit that this was simply “life happening” in front of cameras created a new illusion of reality. And, in the early years of the new century, a whole new level of programing “reality” became all the rage. Sometimes called “reality soap operas” the format took a family or group of people (usually celebrities, but the format created a whole new form of celebrity) and had them live life for all to watch.

Of course, the reality of reality television is far from real life. There are scripts, multiple takes and the ever-present editing process that can reframe actual events in whole new contexts. But, as this new form of entertainment became popular, people also had the chance to maintain their own version of reality programing in the form of social media with the likes of Myspace, Facebook, blogs, vlogs and the like. And with smart-phones, people began to carry around virtual television studios. People could present their own versions of “reality soap operas” for audiences worldwide, whether real or imagined.

And, while we have been conditioned to accept things on screens as trustworthy and real, we all began to realize just how curated the “reality” was. But instead of raising a healthy skepticism of the medium, the more pervasive effect has been the increased doubt and suspicion of truth itself. We have taken the postmodern idea of perspective to its unhealthy extreme. Truth is whatever anyone wants it to be. And that is the second thing that has happened in the past three decades that has led many Evangelicals to embrace the postmodern lie that there is no truth…