DIGITAL POSTMODERNISM AND KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION:TRUTH, MEMORY, AND IDENTITY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Abstract

This paper has explored the representation of social media sites as postmodern ideology, as it alters modern beliefs on truth, memory and identity. The study covered the dynamics of digital spaces through which realities are fragmented such as in Instagram, Tik Tok, and X (Twitter) where authenticity and representation are in constant overlap. The study was aimed at examining the ways in which the individuals shape and dispute their identities in these postmodern digital spaces and how the ever-present movement of pictures and stories will undermine the application of objective truth. They used a qualitative research design including the approaches of the content analysis of chosen social media posts, visual storytelling, and digital self-representations. The presentation of the analysis was based on the postmodern theoretical approach, especially the idea of hyperreality by Jean Baudrillard and the concept of the collapse of the grand narratives by Lyotard. The analysis of the presented results showed that social media promotes a culture of simulation, in which the truth is becoming subjective and mediated by algorithmic visibility. The users design identities, which are performative yet temporary and lend credence to the postmodernist state of fragmented selves. In addition, the research concluded that digital memory works as a mutable and rewritable archive, which is constantly transformed by reposts, filters, trends and undermines the idea of permanence and authenticity. Comprehensively, the study found out that social media is a lived form of digital postmodernism, in which the reality is negotiated, memory is reconstituted, and identity is an on-going performance in a technologically mediated reality.