Living in Plato’s Cave
In describing our relationship with reality, Plato suggested that we imagine a man, bound in chains, unable to turn around and see what was behind him. Bound in this way, he is forced to look upon the back wall of the cave at the dancing shadows of light coming from a fire at the mouth of the cave. This is all of reality to him.
He sees nothing but the dancing shadows—but only because he is unable to turn to see what is behind him.
Plato used this image to challenge the limits of human knowledge.
In our day, it is a metaphor for the growing conviction that all that we “know” is vague, separate from ultimate truth, as we are unable to see the world as it really is.
The Enlightenment was based on a set of foundational assumptions about reality, and specifically how knowledge relates to reality. If you say, “It’s raining,” it either is or it isn’t. You can go outside and tell.
Today’s world says, “Not so fast.”
As Walter Truett Anderson titled his book on the dynamics of postmodernism, “Reality isn’t what it used to be.”
The original postmodern spirit turned its back on the idea that what can be known is built on observable facts. Much of this was based on the growing sense that no one is truly objective. You cannot stand outside of your own context – including experiences, biases and historical-cultural current – and be free to make an unconditioned observation.
It was more than the statement, “That’s your opinion;”
... the idea was that everything is opinion.
In our current context, this has changed. And for that, you can thank social media. It determines what we see, and what we don’t; what we think about, and what never enters our mind. It even shapes how we think.
We no longer think that everything is opinion; we now think that our opinion is the only thing that is true.
Think of the world in the Matrix films. There the “matrix” is an artificial world created by computers to immerse human minds into a false reality in order to keep them subdued. Their true lives are carried out in isolated containers for the harvesting of their body’s energy. But the matrix is so complete, so all-encompassing, that it keeps the mind at bay and in full submission.
Think about social media as our matrix.
It is not only that the communications we live among deceive,
... broadcasting a limiting ideology,
... emphasizing sex and violence,
... conveying diminished images of the good, the true, and the normal,
... corroding the quality of art,
... or reducing language
– all of which they do.
It is also that they convey all that through a complete saturation of our lives as a picture of what is real. The torrent of images, songs, and stories streaming into our lives – and the reality they present – has become our world.
But because of the nature of social media, that world is like the images dancing on the back of Plato’s cave. Those flickering shadows shape our thinking about various issues, but also make us think that whatever stand we take on an issue is not simply a perspective,
... but the truth.
As Mike Mariana wrote in an article for Noēma:
In the 2,500 years since Plato’s time, his cave allegory has accrued a new, arguably more urgent resonance. Our 21st-century civilization is increasingly absorbed by a growing clutch of social media platforms and the technological devices that serve as their vessels; a significant proportion of the human race seems to have voluntarily retreated to what is, effectively, our own versions of Plato’s cave. Hunched over, silent and rapt, these individuals peer into fathomless websites and algorithmically driven applications that glow with an endless panoply of text, images and videos....
Today’s popular platforms — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat — have effectively turned the cave wall into a kaleidoscope of endless entertainment, a tessellation of screens on which to project glittering fragments of human experience. And just like the chained captives in Plato’s cave, we, too, have our own bearers: the savvy tech entrepreneurs who’ve constructed their own version of the wall, along with a dazzling repertoire of novel mechanisms for casting shadows onto it.
He adds:
Our politically polarized society in the U.S. has been firmly linked to the social media algorithms and filter bubbles of the past decade. Our insulated news feeds amplify like-minded posts and compatible views to such a degree that we are rarely exposed to opposing perspectives; moderating voices have all but vanished in an information ecosystem that disincentivizes them.
Conclusion? Such “continuous exposure to these hyperrealities may leave human beings with a limited grasp of objective truth.”
So again, while it used to be assumed that if you said, “It’s raining,” you could go outside and confirm that it was or wasn’t.
Now, to determine if it’s raining,
... you need to go online, enter your cave, and research it through the shadows dancing on the wall.
James Emery White
Sources
Walter Truett Anderson, Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be.
Todd Gitlin, Media Unlimited.
Mike Mariani, “How We Became Captives of Social Media,” Noēma, August 12, 2025, read online.
Photo Courtesy: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/francescoch
Published Date: September 11, 2025
James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.
Originally published September 11, 2025.
