Image-based social media applications are modern manifestations of Plato’s diagnosis of the human condition: captivated by images and ignorant of reality. In this paper, I argue that social media is a modern account of Plato’s cave allegory that perpetuates and intensifies the severity of Plato’s diagnosis by destroying the projected linear ascent to real knowledge. By unwittingly propelling themselves through a revolving door between eikasia and belief, social media users trap themselves within a vicious consumption-production cycle, whereby seeing an image inspires them to create more images, which entices other users to do the same ad infinitum. With the roles of manipulator and manipulated interchangeably occupied by the same people, social media fuels an inescapable obsession with images that subjugates its users to be ignorant of the world beyond their screens. I will begin by explaining eikasia and belief through Plato’s line analogy and cave allegory, then pivot to examine how social media complicates and intensifies Plato’s diagnosis of the human condition, and then address some potential objections to my thesis. The scope of this paper has an intentional focus on the sensible realm and image-based social media applications.

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Before establishing how social media complicates ascent along Plato’s epistemological ladder, one must be familiar with Plato’s cave allegory and line analogy. Plato’s cave reflects the two-worlds metaphysics demonstrated by his divided line. Within the cave is the sensible realm, whose objects are limited to sensible particulars and their reflections, neither of which grant true understanding (Plato, 510a-e). Real knowledge is discovered only in the intelligible realm beyond the cave, governed by knowledge of the good and the forms (unqualified principles) (Plato, 511a-c). The journey of the escaped prisoner detailed in the cave allegory must be interpreted in tandem with Plato’s divided line as the prisoner’s progression to knowledge is marked by the line’s epistemological checkpoints, which reflect the state of said person’s knowledge, and accompanying metaphysical checkpoints, which reflect the objects that person presently believes to be true (Plato 508c). Specifically, I will focus on the epistemological stages of eikasia–mistaking images for real things–and belief–inferior knowledge based on opinion rather than true reality. These stages are personified respectively by the cave’s inhabitants: chained prisoners and puppeteers. First, the chained prisoners, whose actions lack intention, demonstrate the basest lifestyle. Depicted as sitting on the ground, chained to a wall, obediently watching shadows, the prisoners epitomize eikasia and “would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows” (Plato 515c-d). Second are the puppeteers, who control the projections of these shadows (Plato 514b). They hold some hierarchical position above the chained prisoners as they are not physically bound to the cave; yet, they remain metaphorically bound to the cave as they are stuck in belief. Despite seeing the sensible particulars that create the reflections observed by the prisoners, the puppeteers are unaware of what exists beyond those immediate, particular objects (I.e., They remain ignorant of the intelligible realm). 

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To reflect the separate stages of Plato’s epistemological ladder, Plato’s cave allegory maintains a distinct prisoner-puppeteer relationship. As observed by Julia Annas, the prisoner-puppeteer relationship proves that “the human condition is not a social vacuum; there are people in the Cave manipulating the prisoners, as well as the prisoners themselves” (Kraut and Annas 156). Thus, the human tendency to obsess over images is perpetuated by a social construct, whereby chained prisoners are socialized into a life of eikasia (i.e., “looking at the shadows of puppets”), which “[signifies] the taking over, in unreflective fashion, of second-hand opinions and beliefs” as imposed by the puppeteers and not the prisoners’ personal lifestyle choices (Kraut and Annas 155). Ensuingly, the prisoner-puppeteer relationship in Plato’s original cave allegory seems fairly straightforward and reflective of a linear upward progression along his epistemological ladder: the prisoners know the least about the sensible world; the puppeteers know more about the sensible world but nothing of the intelligible world; and a clear division exists between the manipulators and the manipulated. 

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As a modern cave, social media has the same manipulative foundations as Plato’s original cave; however, due to modern technology, escaping the sensible realm and progressing past the lowest rungs of the epistemological ladder necessarily become more difficult. Indeed, applications like Instagram provide a far more expansive collection of images than the puppet show detailed in the original allegory (Plato 514b). Instagram posts are limited neither by geography nor cost nor lack of personal connections (save private accounts). With an increased range of accessibility, social media is a dangerous vehicle for perpetuating humans’ tendency to spend most of their time trapped in reflections and the sensible realm. By design, social media cultivates an obsession with reflections, whereby seeing an image inspires people to create more images, establishing and ensnaring its users in an image consumption-production cycle. 

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Imagine social media as an expanded version of Plato’s original cave. As a whole, the cave represents the sensible realm. The expanded cave has two rooms, and the stairway to the mouth of the cave lies in a back corner beyond both rooms. One room contains the prisoners in eikasia and the other room contains the puppeteers in belief. The two rooms are separated by a perpetually revolving door, which creates a vortex that sucks social media users to and fro eikasia and belief. Beginning ascent to the mouth of the cave now requires escaping this vortex entirely rather than individual progression past each stage.

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Depending on their positions in the consumer-producer cycle, social media users revolve between eikasia and belief respectively. For example, posting a photo on Instagram would designate a user as a producer in belief, but scrolling through one’s Instagram feed and liking others’ photos designates a user as a consumer in eikasia. As more users become absorbed by the consumer-producer maelstrom, the amount of images produced increases. A positive correlation ensues whereby more images produced means more images consumed, exponentially increasing the time humans spend engrossed by the reflections on their screens. By perpetuating the cycle, users become disoriented and dissuaded from existing outside the cycle. Even if the producers of images recognize they are observing mere images, by continuing to consume images regardless (e.g., spending hours scrolling through Instagram feeds, TikTok videos, etc.), they neglect their better judgment. The circular exchange between eikasia and belief traps users in vortex whereby they cannot escape the sensible realm insofar as they are social media users. Rather, it seems the only way to escape the cycle and regain the potential to advance to the intelligible realm is to cease social media use entirely; but, even then, such progress cannot be guaranteed. 

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Thus, though Plato’s divided line and cave allegory inform my comparison of social media to a modern–day cave, the indubitable differences in the operation of their prisoner-puppeteer relationships pose hopeless implications for Plato’s diagnosis of the human condition in present society. Because most social media users both create and consume images, the roles of social media users in the cave and their positions along the divided line are less distinct than those of the prisoners and puppeteers in Plato’s original cave allegory. By producing images like puppeteers, users understand that images are merely reflections of sensible particulars; yet, by continuing to consume others’ images/reflections like prisoners, users revert back to focusing on mere images without complaint. In contrast, Plato’s epistemological ladder seems to suggest that upward progression through these phases is linear, positing that one cannot fall back into eikasia after progressing to belief. However, social media users challenge the expected upward trajectory along Plato’s epistemological ladder by embodying eikasia and belief interchangeably, a development that reduces humans’ potential for progression beyond the ladder’s lowest rungs and makes the reality of the human condition all the more haunting. 

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Some may object that social media users who do not post their own images experience only eikasia, which invalidates my thesis that eikasia and belief are occupied interchangeably by the same person. In response, I would agree that users who only consume images are purely in eikasia. Like the cave’s chained prisoners, they consume images as reality and do not witness the sensible particulars that inspire the image. However, this does not invalidate my thesis. My thesis posits that, for social media users, belief does not exist without eikasia, not that eikasia cannot exist without belief. It is possible for a social media user to be only a consumer and experience only eikasia; yet, users who are consumer-producers necessarily experience both eikasia and belief insofar as they create reflections to manipulate others and are manipulated by the images of others. In short, users who merely scroll through their Instagram feed can be said to be in eikasia only; but, users who post and scroll experience eikasia and belief interchangeably depending on their present position in the consumer-producer cycle. 

 

One may object to my interpretation of Plato’s intended linear ascent along the epistemological ladder and posit that my argument hinges on assuming that Plato’s original cave oversimplifies the journey to knowledge. Essentially, they would claim my argument is invalid due to my flawed interpretation. I proffer: whether Plato envisioned eikasia and belief as capable of existing interchangeably within the same person and whether he believes regression from belief to eikasia is possible is unclear in his original cave allegory. I find that the imagery of Plato’s cave suggests that, despite being trapped in the lowest rungs, the cave inhabitants do not regress from belief to eikasia. Evidently, the allegory reports the escaped prisoner passing the puppeteers and proceeding to leave the cave rather than stopping to become a puppeteer himself (Plato, Republic 515c-e). Contrarily, I find that social media users (who both alternate between image consumers and producers) necessarily alternate between eikasia and belief, evincing that the modern cave permits these stages to exist interchangeably in the same people. Because my argument lies in developing Plato’s ideas to explore how social media complicates possible ascent along his epistemological ladder, even if Plato were to claim that my cycle exists in the original cave, too, my argument for its existence in the modern cave would not be invalidated. Rather, my argument would be strengthened by his endorsement.

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In this paper, I have set out to prove that social media perpetuates Plato’s diagnosis of the human tendency to be trapped in the sensible realm. By outlining the existence of a consumer-producer vortex, social media users are propelled into alternating stages of eikasia and belief, disorienting their judgment, and heightening their obsession with images and conviction of particulars as reality. As technology advances and images become more plentiful and accessible, the severity and hopelessness of Plato’s diagnosis intensifies, challenging whether future generations could ever discover the intelligible world beyond their screens. Thus, insofar as social media usage remains ever present, the revolving image consumer-producer cycle will inevitably be perpetuated.

Works Cited

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Kraut, Richard, and Julia Annas. “Understanding and the Good: Sun, Line, and Cave.” Plato’s Republic: Critical Essays, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1997, pp. 143–168. ProQuest Ebook Central,

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hamilton/detail.action?docID=1130201.

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Plato. Republic. Edited by C.D.C. Reeve. Translated by G.M.A. Grube, 2nd ed., Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1992.