Black Mirror is a Netflix series I watch and episode "Nose Dive" quickly become one of my biggest inspirations for this project.
It explores the journey of character Lacie, a young woman who is evidently unhappy with her current social status; which is a 4.2. In this near future world social status is the utmost important thing and is ruled by digitally rating each other through an app/device. Everyone is living in a fake world were online image is everything to them, often some characters letting their personal lives slide all to appear perfect.
Say one bad thing to someone = bad rating
Look at someone the wrong was = bad rating
Be a friend to someone who everyone doesn't like = bad rating
Everything is judged and it was so interesting to see how the story of Lacie's social downfall occurs in this strange, creepy near future Earth that scarily parallels social media habits and addictions that seem to have become more evident for us humans today.
Here are some notes of my thoughts I wrote down as I watched:
- the fact that people are rated is really creepy to me - it kind of reminds me of Uber - as soon as you leave you rate your experience
- her strive for success in the social media world is something that a lot of people strive for today through instagram/twitter etc...
- here she takes a perfect/aesthetically pleasing photograph of a coffee and uploads it to receive lots of praise, likes and happy responses - she feels good - she gets that hit of dopamine
- interestingly when she tastes the coffee - it tastes bad - which is a reflection on the theme of "not everything is as good as it looks"
- This scene here is something I actually think is a common sight today
- People often stand there using their phones, not communicating with each other
- Things really go bad for Lacie as she tries her hardest to please everyone in order to gain her a higher rating, which takes her nowhere
- her online social life, which is ultimately her only social life is ruined as her rating takes a "nose dive"
- she mentally breaksdown in front of a big crowd of people which brings her rating to an all time low of ZERO - this could reflect on mental health and depression social media can often be a part of
- she gets arrested for her public outburst of emotions and ironically is set free
- with no phone she screams with joy in her cell and begins a conversation with a fellow prison inmate - her most genuine human interaction for the duration of the whole episode
My overall summary and thoughts
- Although very dystopian, this episode is very reflective of modern society today which is a something that shocked me
- Maybe is isn't about the future? but is preying on the things we take for granted for in the present and the things we rely on too heavily for "happiness"
- Social media platforms put so much pressure on people to lead perfect, interesting and engaging lives, especially young people who have been brought up with these technological advances
- The symbolism was extremely inspiring - amazing photo of coffee, contrasting with it tasting bad - only becoming free when she's locked in a cell phoneless
- This type of imagery is something I want to explore within my final outcome
- Watching this episode made me think... is the chase of popularity over social media worth it? Is the acceptance through "likes" of friends and strangers through necessary? Ultimately it isn't
"The episode also suggests that the only way to approach the coveted 5.0 rating is to project a Martha Stewart Living illusion of graceful, plastic beauty. Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright gives Lacie's pre-nosedive life a peach-and-pastel glow that's luminously pretty on-screen, but so flavorless and fake, it's impossible to imagine it's the only standard for five-star life. And yet there's no hint that anyone but the most low-rated outcasts in Lacie's world value any other form of achievement or art. In the real world, at minimum, there would be ways for people to degrade themselves for quick bursts of approval, like in the mesmerizing first season Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits." In "Nosedive," the only option for people who like grit or grunge is to drop out of the system, and take the consequences.
But "Nosedive" isn't out for reality. It's out to extrapolate the endgame of customer ratings systems, which turn the world into a lopsided giant prisoner's dilemma of applied power. And as exaggerated and unlikely as it is, it's also an effective story, because even in the broadness of its metaphor, it's relatable. Howard's performance goes a long way toward making the story work, because she projects such a fragile, brittle form of happiness when she's working hard for validation, and she's so rawly naked and afraid when her tricks stop working, and her real self starts pouring past the dams she's built. That feeling should be familiar to anyone who's censored their own image on social media out of fear of exposure, or just in hopes of a sparking a particular response from a particular person. It should be familiar to anyone who's ever had someone else post an unflattering photo of them, or fielded a hateful comment from a stranger."
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