New Media and The Social Reconstruction Of Reality

Social constitutive power of media has been increasing continuously as we enter the era of new media driven by digital technology. As a result, media is no longer a simple means of living but a life itself. Building on Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s phenomenological proposition: ‘Reality is socially constructed’, this study first applies said proposition to our current social reality and discusses the changing life-world of the digital age under the theme of “social reconstruction of reality.” Next, referring to the results from 2011’s survey of 1027 netizens on happiness, the constituting mechanisms of online and offline life-worlds are compared. Finally, based on aforementioned theoretical and empirical discussions, qualitative differences in online and offline life-worlds are further explored.

Upon analyzing survey results, the rise of online life-world, as opposed to offline life-world, is witnessed. Online life-world can now be considered a very effective functional alternative to offline life-world. While citizens, the members of offline life-world tend to follow reality principle, netizens of online life-world appear to favor fantasy principle. If causal logic is inherently emphasized in explaining the behaviors of citizens, narrative logic seems more salient for understanding netizen's behaviors.

Compared to our conventional offline everyday-life which has been existing from the outset of agricultural age, online everyday-life, used to be generally looked down as ‘mock reality’ devoid of substance. However, empowered online virtual reality is now elevated to an alternative life-world capable of competing against offline actual reality. Moreover, owing to its hyper-real characteristics, online virtual reality appears to reinforce itself up to a point where the possibility of colonizing offline everyday-life cannot be ignored.