Distorting mirror

Image in a distorting mirror

A distorting mirror, funhouse mirror or carnival mirror is a popular attraction at carnivals and fairs. 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. 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.

Distorted mirrors are used as a metaphor for describing Wikipedia, personalized medicine and social media which rather than reflecting society, tend to distort our perceptions of reality and social norms.

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) 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. PMID 39369456.
  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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