Plato’s allegory The Cave (Republic, c.360 BCE) is similar in many ways to what most would recognize as a modern cinema. Three men are placed in a dark cave, and can only view the reflections of what is reflected across the entrance. They are ignorant to all but what is shown to them and use this limited knowledge to attempt to construct the world around them; similarly to how people use movies to shape the world outside of their own lives. A person who has never been outside the USA could watch a movie centered in Paris and feel like they know everything about it, but they have not actually experienced it first hand. Someone can not truly understand a place until they have visited and experienced it in person. Another example is impressionable children who are known for imitating acts they have seen in movies and tv shows. After the release of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, there were over 50 reported cases of children being taken to the hospital due to salmonella poisoning after copying Tiana’s act of kissing a frog (Laeuchili, 2017). Another instance of reality warp is when millions of Justin Bieber fans sent death threats back in 2015 to the model Xenia Deli that participated in his music video for his song What Do You Mean (Ward,2015). His fans actually thought Deli was in a relationship with him and harassed her for it. Movies in the modern age are more fantastical and realistic with each new release. It is easy to mistake these silver screen for the real world, especially for people who find their real world lives less than lacking. More and more movies and tv series are showcasing heroes who face the same everyday problems as us every dayers but seem to have everything wrapped up in a thirty minute time period. Most people just can’t reconcile with the fact that these situations aren’t real and most don’t want to. They want to believe that they themselves can achieve the same goals, no matter how unrealistic these goals are. No matter what you tell them they will continue to believe the physical world of movies is their reality.
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Veronica Spicer 
Most TV/movie story lines are beyond farfetched, that cramming in accomplishing a dream in a 30 minute (or 2 hour) time frame seems like it could be doable in the real world, but alas, we are all left with egg on our face for trying. The brightside of our reality is that there are 24 hours in a day… everyone has the same amount of time given to them, and yet, you will hear people denying the fact that they “can’t do something because they don’t have time.” They have time, they just haven’t prioritized. Great blog!
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I really enjoyed reading all of the examples you provided. I think they did a great job of adding supportive detail to your argument. I agree with you in the sense that people cannot fully understand a place until they have been there themselves. Too often people watch movies or shows or the news and cast judgments or believes without experiences on what they are judging. Great work.
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