Truth, Media and Technology in the Digital Age

Truth, media and technology are notions often discussed in a flippant manner as if their meanings and politics are beyond confusion even in the digital age.

- by Sasanka Perera (The writer is on X as @sasmester)

It will be useful to reflect upon all three as the adverse consequences of not paying heed to them are evident, but often unknown and taken for granted.

Truth in the Digital Age

I will not take for granted the notion of ‘Truth’ in the digital age. This is partly because I know nothing of it. When the idea of the truth is flagged in any discourse, it seems to suggest there is something very tangible, concrete and singular called ‘The’ Truth even in the digital age. But both as an individual and as a sociologist, I have always been extremely weary of what is meant by the truth. For me, believing in the truth — and that too without reference to facts but on mere faith — is a matter for religion. Besides, in a world emerging within boundless parameters of the digital age, the truth - in whatever manner it is defined - becomes a difficult expectation to sustain. The idea of the truth in the digital age brings to mind the notion of the ‘original’ in postmodern thinking. Here, the original too was a form of truth. It was the genesis of everything else in various disciplines, discourses, fields of knowledge and even in religion and ethno-cultural identity.

In postmodern thought, the ‘original’ or whatever was thought to be the original in everything is deconstructed. Postmodernism rejects the idea that a singular truth, a fixed truth or origin exists in anything, arguing that meaning formation tends to be fluid, contextual, and constructed through language and discourse. That is, instead of a singular, original source for anything, postmodernism argues for the presence of multiple perspectives, fragmented narratives, and the blurring of boundaries between different forms of expression.