The concept of “fluidity of the digital” stems from the fact that our current technology has progressed at such a rapid pace that the most accurate way of capturing images – photographs – is no longer a reliable source. That is, to say, that photos can be edited extremely easily now. This means that reality can no longer be properly represented by photographs, which are now just as trustworthy as paintings or drawings. An example of a photo like this can be seen below. In this image, an artificial light source has been added in post-production and the overall image has been increased accordingly. This creates a false sense of magic to the picture, almost like god himself is opening up the trees and shining light onto the girl. The original image had poor, gray lighting, and was most likely captured on a cloudy day. However, the final image does not properly reflect this reality.
Compared with video, photography cannot compete. While photo editing has come a long way, it’s still fairly difficult to convincingly edit a photograph, let alone thousands – and thousands are what makeup even a short video. For that reason, virtual reality would seemingly be the most realistic experience, since it combines video, audio, and movement into a fully immersive experience. In contrast, text media is most likely the easiest to create a fake reality with, since there are no special technical skills involved. Overall, photography is still fairly true to reality, since most photographs escape the fate of photo editing.