Reality Drift as Cultural Distortion: Early Uptake and Implications
<p dir="ltr">This think tank briefing (ICDS Working Paper No. 3, September 2021) documents the emergence of Reality Drift as a framework for cultural analysis and traces its early diffusion across online platforms. Unlike collapse, drift is distortion: a subtle warping of what counts...
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2025
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| Summary: | <p dir="ltr">This think tank briefing (ICDS Working Paper No. 3, September 2021) documents the emergence of Reality Drift as a framework for cultural analysis and traces its early diffusion across online platforms. Unlike collapse, drift is distortion: a subtle warping of what counts as real under algorithmic mediation.</p><p dir="ltr">The report outlines the conceptual vocabulary (Synthetic Realness, Filter Fatigue, Optimization Trap, Cognitive Drift) and situates them against earlier anchors such as McLuhan’s media ecology and Baudrillard’s hyperreality. It highlights how the Reality Drift framework quickly circulated via Substack essays, Reddit discussions, TikTok hashtags, and classroom use—becoming “the new vocabulary of the algorithmic age.”</p><p dir="ltr">By embedding coined terms alongside established anchors, this briefing demonstrates how novel concepts seed themselves in cultural discourse. It concludes with implications for policy, education, and research on cultural distortion in the Synthetic Age.</p> |
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