As a Marxist, Benjamin would have naturally frowned upon the development of social media culture and the capitalistic control over the digital world today. The mindless sharing, the influencer culture and our obsession with material goods and status that social media has birthed too would have been frowned upon. We are living in an age which tempts us to ignore our reality and live under the illusion of a good life online.

And while on one hand, social media produces manufactured reality over and over again, it also offers opportunities for creation and creativity. But perhaps most importantly it provides a voice to people in a democracy. The merits and demerits of armchair activism can be debated but unarguably, social media creates a space for awareness.

At the time of the publication of the essay, the only way to view an image was in its physical form but with the advent of the digital age, the idea of the aura has been turned on its head. Michael Sankey argues that photography is no longer related to tradition, cult or ritual, as was desired by Benjamin in his rejection of the “aura” but now has taken on a new form of “accessibility and massification, with little to no regard for integrity or cultural heritage.”