Real or Not? Questioning Social Media Reality

Real or not real? I was (re)watching The Hunger Games recently and (re)breaking my heart watching Peeta’s torment and the game of real or not real that he has to play to bring himself back to who he once was - and it dawned on me that we all have been playing this game for a really long time. 👉Lifestyles you see on social media - real or not real? 👉Heavily retouched photos of beautiful people - real or not real? 👉this photo - real or not real? And so many of these are actually “partially real”, but that doesn’t help everyone because: 💡not everyone knows how to spot an altered photo/video 💡not everyone will read this and realize this photo is only half real (swipe for original and camera settings) 💡not everyone can spot full AI generated photos (I saw the last two truths very recently on a prominent photographer’s post where he very clearly stated the photo was fully AI generated in midjourney, but in the comments had people praising him over the “better shot” that he got over what was being released in the news. But… do we even want to play this game? Or are we happier not knowing what’s real and not real in exchange for “ignorance is bliss” since reality is so much “uglier”? My promise to you is in the first comment. Lmk your thoughts on AI!