Digital Morality: A New Moral Dilemma

Is this real? Photo by Danka & Peter on Unsplash

“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” — “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether” by Edgar Allan Poe

Digital Morality is something you’re going to hear about a lot in the future. It may not be called my little coined phrase — but the concept will be the same:

“Maintaining morality and integrity of digital mediums.”

What we’re discussing here isn’t exactly new — but the ramifications of the outcome will become so important that it could ruin marriages, destroy a country or even bring global economy to its knees.

So what’s the issue? We’ve been airbrushing, “Photoshopping”, auto tuning, glamor shotting, CGI’ing … pretty much cheating our entire lives with photos, music and video. What’s the big deal now?

There is a big difference between knowing something is “fake” and something being passed off as The Real Deal.

When you look at a magazine cover or glamor shot — you know you’re being fooled. Before digital wizardry they used camera tricks, special lighting, make up and airbrushing to make the models look better. There is no question of morality there. The viewer knows what they are looking at isn’t real.