The more Kim tells me about her family, the more hyperreal they seem.

"Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X makes you cool, car Y means you’re rich), is the contributing factor in creating hyperreality. Hyperreality tricks the consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Essentially, fulfillment or happiness is found through simulation and imitation of the real rather than through reality itself."

-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Examples of hyperreality

• a sports drink of a flavour that doesn't exist ("wild ice zest berry")
• a plastic Christmas tree that looks better than a real Christmas tree ever could
• a magazine photo of a model that has been touched up with a computer
• almost all video games
• a well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal)
• Disney World and Las Vegas
• pornography ("sexier than sex itself")
• The stock market