Distorting mirror

Image in a distorting mirror

A distorting mirror, funhouse mirror or carnival mirror is a popular attraction at carnivals and fairs. ^[1] Instead of a normal plane mirror that reflects a perfect mirror image, distorting mirrors are curved mirrors, often using convex and concave sections to achieve the distorted effect. ^[2] Because of their distorting properties, they are sometimes featured in fiction as a literary device, such as in Hans Christian Andersen's 1844 fairy tale The Snow Queen . ^[3]

Distorted mirrors are used as a metaphor for describing Wikipedia, ^[4] personalized medicine ^[5] and social media which rather than reflecting society, tend to distort our perceptions of reality and social norms. ^{[6] [7]}

References

1. "What is a Carnival Mirror?". August 19, 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
2. Rossing, Thomas D.; Chiaverina, Christopher J. (September 24, 1999). Light science: physics and the visual arts. Springer. p. 53. ISBN   978-0-387-98827-6 . Retrieved 2011-09-14.
3. Westfahl, Gary (2005). The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy: themes, works, and wonders. Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 529. ISBN   978-0-313-32952-4 . Retrieved 2011-09-14.
4. Anna Samoilenko; Taha Yasseri (22 January 2014). "The distorted mirror of Wikipedia: a quantitative analysis of Wikipedia coverage of academics". EPJ Data Science. 3 (1). arXiv: 1310.8508 . doi:10.1140/EPJDS20. ISSN   2193-1127.
5. Mira W Vegter; Hub A E Zwart; Alain J van Gool (5 January 2021). "The funhouse mirror: the I in personalised healthcare". Life sciences, society and policy. 17 (1): 1. doi: 10.1186/S40504-020-00108-0 . ISSN   2195-7819. PMC   7784356 . PMID   33397487.
6. Claire E. Robertson; Kareena S. del Rosario; Jay J. Van Bavel (1 December 2024). "Inside the funhouse mirror factory: How social media distorts perceptions of norms". Current opinion in psychology. 60 101918. doi:10.1016/J.COPSYC.2024.101918. ISSN   2352-250X.
7. Yang, John (2024). "How a small but vocal minority of social media users distort reality and sow division". pbs.org. PBS. Mark Zuckerberg has said that social media is a reflection of society. But it's more like a funhouse mirror distorted by a small but vocal minority of extreme outliers

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