Blast from the Past

While listening to the discussions in class, I had this realization that what we were talking about in terms of digital information harkens back to Plato's theory of The Forms. Basic idea is that there's a single Form of an object, say a statue. Because of the way we are, we can't quite see the true Form of an object, but we make representations of it. The closer these representations are to the original, the better they are.

In our use, the Form of something would be that actual thing and each representation through digital media would be one step removed from that original form. So if a tourist is looking at the statue of David and they take a picture with their camera phone, which then uploads to Facebook, and then is used as an example on a television show. In Plato's thinking the TV show version was horribly removed from the true form and therefore lost much of its meaning, since every step removed from the original is a loss of meaning and intent.

A lot of people consider digital media and information sharing an important thing. The more information that's shared, the more people can learn. Say a teenager is scanning through her Facebook friends and comes across the picture, having never seen the statue before. She now has information she didn't have before and an avenue of being able to learn more about it.

However, is the representation really that important and valuable? Does digital media cheapen the actual life experiences of people, considering many people figure that they don't need to actually go out and experience things because they can just check online.

Is more information better?