The Allegory of the Cave

1. The "shadows" that Plato talked about were really just illusions that represent how the truth is often hidden. We are often "blinded" by these illusions which enable us from seeing the whole truth. Magazines, movie stars, and the news are just a few of the "shadows" we deal with in our everyday lives. All of them have been edited and exaggerated in order to change the perception of the people who encounter them. They are not complete truths, but we are often tricked into believing that are.

2. http://www.eharmony.com/ portrays a "shadow." On this website people can lie about their age, hair color, hometown, and anything else that they feel like. The people who look at it are often tricked into believing what they think is the truth, when in reality it's a lie.

3. "Shadows" impact society greatly in both good and bad ways. Sometimes they're inspiring and can give people a determined attitude. But a lot of the time they are degrading. For example, when a teenage girl looks at a magazine, she sees a bunch of perfect girls without any flaws whatsoever. What she does not see is that the girls in that magazine DO have flaws. They have just been eliminated in order to portray the "perfect" girl. The girl looking at the magazine will then compare herself to the girls in the magazine which will make her think that there is something wrong with her because she doesn't look like that. This will then lower her self-esteem which can lead to some pretty severe things, such as anerexia. When it comes down to it, "shadows" lie to us by messing with our sense of judgement and "blinding" us from the truth.