Have you seen The Truman Show (Dir. Peter Weir, 1998)? The film centres around a character who is unaware that his entire life and world is actually a popular reality television show. Mark Deuze uses this film as a metaphor:
"We are now all living inside our very own Truman Show... a world characterized by pervasive and ubiquitous media that we are constantly and concurrently deeply immersed in, that we are the stars of, and that dominate and shape all aspects of our everyday life." (2011)
What about those that live in relative isolation from the saturation of modern social media? Even within Australia, mobile phone usage is more limited than it seems. Bell states that over 80% of our population owns a cell phone therefore "meaning that almost all citizens have some form of access to one." (2006) But if you look at a map of mobile phone coverage in Australia (see below map of Telstra coverage - the most extensive coverage in Australia) you will notice that the rural population of Australia has limited access to the mobile network.
Source: http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/networks/coverage/state.html
But if you believe that social media can lead to distorted or fragmented reality, then is this lack of connectivity detrimental to isolated regions of outback australia, or is it a preservation of a fading reality?
References
Bell, G. (2006). The Age of the Thumb: a Cultural Reading of Mobile Technologies from Asia. Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Summer 2006, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 41-57.
Deuze, M. (2011). Media Life. In Media, Culture & Society, Volume 33, issue 1, pp. 137-148.
Telstra corporation Limited. "State Coverage Maps." http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/networks/coverage/state.html Accessed April 3 2011.
Youtube. "The Truman Show; HQ Trailer" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZM2oWcleM&feature=related Accessed April 3 2011.
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