"In Plato's Cave" by Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag's "In Plato's Cave" was an enlightening article to read after "Plato's Allegory of the Cave" because it applies to current culture and the affect the camera has on society and social constructs of today. Without the development of the digital camera, society would be a completely different entity; communication and publication would change its purpose entirely. She makes comments about how photography has affected society and these are the general interpretations:

1. Sontag's commentary of photography is similar to that of Plato's "Cave"; both are describing a persons inability to "see" the world around them properly and how by looking through the lens of the camera is just like seeing the shadow on the wall inside of the cave, a shade is all that is being seen.
2. To continue the comparison the camera, just like the human mind, is able to control what is being seen and portrayed to others. The camera does the selection process for the person, closing their minds to what is happening around them and the knowledge they could gain. 
3. Society is now becoming more passive in their chance at being active; the photographer is unable to fully experience the "light" and what they are seeing. The people on the other side of the camera become caught up in the moment of the photo, beginning to ignore their surroundings and revert back to "the cave".
4. Photography is preventing "enlightenment" to be reached because society is now focused on "possessing"other beings as things, or even just the thought of doing so with a photograph. Photography is now making possession and nostalgia a focus.
5. Sontag states at the end that Photography ruins knowledge because photographs give "valid information" for some cases, but for most cases the "valid information" is actually "fiction". Because of the photograph everything can be dismantled and the reality of the moment or memory in time is now changed.