---
title: "Digital Reality"
description: "Discover what digital reality is, its future and top trends for 2025, the metaverse and AI integration, digital transformation with XR, and innovation in…"
url: https://www.independentpress.com/article/digital-reality
date: 2025-11-25
categories: ["Technology","Social"]
author: "By Anna K."
---

# Digital Reality

![Digital Reality ](https://images.ctfassets.net/ewtdlsoyixc1/5tkT3LMqLdM904YkC2Qu5o/af37780cce99731c03914b512ae85d5f/thumbnail_Digital_reality_-_3.jpg)

My generation grew up amid screens that never sleep. Every new story on your phone lights up as a notification, immediately, brightly, and almost without any context. Gen Z is the first generation to grow up in the world and learn about it not through oral stories, books, newspapers, or television, but through short videos, algorithms, recommendations, and memes, all of which often replace facts. In this new ecosystem of truth, AI is not only an instrument for disseminating news but also the teller and transmitter of the epoch, able to create, distort, and control narratives. 

Something that used to be called ‘the fight for thought’ has become the fight for newsfeeds. Politics no longer live on the pages of newspapers or inside parliamentary debates, but have managed to migrate to TikTok, Instagram, and X. The algorithms now decide which post(s) you are going to see first, which emotions you are going to feel, and on whose side you will be. And the problem goes much deeper because AI is learning from the same content we are, soaking up the same prejudices, fears, and political biases of society. According to Kate Crawford, “AI is not a neutral technology, but rather a reflection of those social relations on which it is based.” Which only makes you wonder, if the makers and coders of AI have imposed their personal beliefs on the architecture of its digital truth, can any algorithm ever be unbiased? When AI filters information for millions of users, the question of who wrote the code becomes the question of who wields the power. 

In this power, a new form of propaganda is hidden. Each like, each view, and each second of your attention on your screen becomes a part of an economic model in which the ‘truth’ is the key mechanism that keeps us hooked the longest. Research conducted by Pew Research in 2024 showed that 71% of Gen Z’ers receive and consume their news on social media; however, only 28% are certain they can tell the reliability and truthfulness of the source. As older generations lived alongside media outlets, seeing them as mediators, Gen Z lives within that very media flow, where the boundary between news and simulation can no longer be clearly defined. 

The paradox of our generation lies in both our susceptibility and skepticism toward this new reality. At first glance, we are extremely susceptible to the digital mirages presented to us, as algorithms know exactly how to insert themselves into our zone of trust, adapting our reality into a digital one. But this constant bombardment of content has made us develop almost reflexive distrust: the habit of fact-checking, digging through the layers of information to find out what the real facts are and what is just an aesthetic façade. We aren’t blind to artificial intelligence: how it generates political speeches, deepfake videos, and AI-generated videos taken as ‘real events.’ However, the same system that draws our skepticism fosters new media education and the ability to doubt, check, and personally interpret, rather than believe everything we see. 

The problem is that AI is becoming increasingly convincing. A recent European Commission report states that more than 40% of political images created with generative AI are interpreted literally by users. We live in an era where fakes are no longer just lies but have become an aesthetic part of digital culture, where visual credibility is more important than factual accuracy. 

Political parties understand this. The left and the right, liberals and conservatives, have both learned how to speak the language of short clips. Political candidates launch AI campaigns in which chatbots mimic their speeches and algorithms create the image of an ideal leader, all tailored for your feed and your life. In this way, the political narrative doesn’t become a collective experience, but a personalized illusion, in which everyone has their own truth presented from the side of the screen where the algorithm has decided it will be most interesting. 

Maybe we will never be able to ever get rid of these distortions, but as Gen Z, we are already learning to live in a world where the truth is not a fact, but a process. We ask questions, check our sources, analyze visual content, create our own platforms, and most importantly, don’t trust any platform wholeheartedly. In this, we have learned that the answer to the question of how to live in the era of digital chaos is not seeking a singular truth but to build a space where it can exist without filters. AI hasn’t made us less human; it has just forced us to think about what it truly means to stay informed. And maybe, this is the vital first step into the new era of digital reality, where knowledge can once again mean responsibility. 

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