system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 - In very brief, simple terms, what is the postmodern?

I suppose I mean from a sociological perspective. This is one concept that seems to pop up everywhere, but it always seems to mean something slightly different. Relationships with media, inter-textuality, that kind of stuff I believe, but I've never been too sure. Can any of you underpin exactly what postmodern means in simple terms for me?
gpt
"Modernism" is the idea that things are getting better, or can get better. Try to improve technology, expand the methods of art, etc. Try to be the best you can be, destroy tradition, move society and the individual forwards. Write the great American novel, make the best movie ever. Art should be universal and stand alone.

Post-modernism is the rejection of that idea. Maybe there /isn't/ such a thing as perfection. Maybe instead of trying to make the universal movie or novel, we should try to see things from different perspectives. In the social sciences, post-modern practice questions the idea of objective reality and the scientific method. Not necessarily discarding it, but taking an approach which allows for multiple perspectives to be reported.