Post modernism

I think of myself as a baby boomer generation,the era born out of challenging the status quo of materialism,consumerism,the deference to traditional institutions,the anti militarism of beatniks and flower power. so as we transition to hipsters,i find being drawn to post modernism-it ranges from the surrealism of Salvador Dali,cubic art of Picasso,organic architecture of Gaudi ,the philosophy of existentialism of French philosophers of Paul Satre,semiotics and deconstructionism of Jacques Derridda and Michael Foucalt's discourse analysis and language empowerment.
          How does the philosophy of postmodernism extend to music,photography,sculptures,fashion,,politics and etc?

Features of post modernism
- anti traditional religious dogmas
-individualistic
-looking at the commonalities between people instead of differences
-anti -authoritarian
-acceptance of diversity
-Truth is relative
-facts are subjective representations


When we look at how the mass media interprets "reality" ,it constructs a world view for its readers and readers need to be taught to read between the lines to see how truth can be manipulated through semiotics of visuals and words.
   The phenomenon of the social media "likes" constructs a view of reality in which attention seekers and egomaniacs are cause for celebration so that these social influencers ger so heady by the number of social acceptance that they risk their lives doing daredevil stunts to get a wider audience as captive market.The other thing is how that social fame translates into profitability of advertisements and commercial endorsements that the power of fame is monetised.Before i "like " anything,I think twice about the effect of that like button that shows my approval and endorsement of that person's actions and I would be wary of liking some behaviour that I find socially outrageous ,scandalous or perverted just NOT to give that person a sense of his or her power to manipulate my preferences and thinking.
       Einstein said the day we lose the skill of interacting using language would be the day technology has reduced us to idiots would be seen in how facial expressions and body language which are how primates communicates feelings and opinions had been degraded to universal symbols of emojis,giffs.emoticons and abbreviated LOLs so much so that human communication would lose that subtlety of the inference and nuance of words,tones and facial and gestures to express meaning and we literally degenerate to a generation of autistic behaviours,being unable to interpret body language without the aid of machines like software apps.The autistic apes that we will be changed into might see us using sign language soon.
     I enjoy holding a good conversation with well informed students like the girl from China with whom I discoursed at length about the impact of technology on daily lives and how it could make our lives more convenient but somehow lose our personalprivacy when big data secretly collect information about our preferences,tastes and opinions and sell that for commercialization.Students with critical thinking skills are  nice to interact with when it comes to understanding the new generation.It would be an eye opener for them when issues of gender discrimination is shown through movies like Provoked or plights of migrants in Tsai Ming Liang's Sleepless in KL.Education should be more than a means to earn a living but instill attitudes that there is a wider social issue they may not be aware of.Some of the kids I've taught have gone on to become more compassionate doctors and lawyers and that would be my greatest job satisfaction.