Ecstasy of Communication

In Baudrillard’s essay, he describes the shift from the modern world as mirror to the present world as screen. The world of the mirror was a world in which the idea of the intimate, the private, could exist separate from the realm of the public. He claims that today this delineation between the two realms can no longer exist and that, instead of a world in which a scene can be played out, there’s only an “operational surface” of communication.
With the claimed death of the scene, the playing out of earthly metaphors has brought about a universe of multiple networks with television as the best example. Baudrillard claims that there’s been a displacement of bodily movement and efforts into electric or electronic commands. He describes this glut of useless information as a replacement of pornography and deems it obscene, where the most intimate moments become the “virtual feeding ground of the media”. This obscenity begins where the spectacle ends and everything is transparent. He calls this the ecstasy of communication. Nothing can be represented anymore. The message fades out of existence and the circulation of the medium becomes everything. The pleasure of this ecstasy is fascination. Baudrillard claims that with this fascination and ecstasy, passion disappears taking with it the end of intimacy.