Week 7 Response
Social media on crack to the point that it dictates and controls the stream of experiences in your life. Nosedive felt like a nightmarish way to live but it was unlike any other black mirror episode in the way the story is presented. Throughout the episode I found myself facing moments of unease and deep realization brought me closer to the true meaning of this story. We all have presumptive assumptions about the people we encounter digitally on a daily basis. These assumptions bring us further away from deep connection with people when its done on a social networking platform. Social media paints a false picture of peoples’ lives and Nosedive takes it steps further by engulfing a person’s entire life and capabilities according to their social rating. Ratings dictate everything even to the point that Lacie wants to move into a housing complex and it requires a minimum rating she doesn’t currently have so its used to show how exclusivity of a “higher class” is controlled. I felt attacked when Lacie gave the man a good rating because he direly needed it and the people all around her saw that as a weakness on her part and gave her bad ratings for it. Social media feels like that sometimes because you may not feel comfortable voicing your opinion online where it is up for judgement by others. It breeds a society of fakeness where people only do what they perceive is best for their image but doesn’t actually represent who they are as a person and their beliefs. Nosedive is a wake up call that makes me want to distance more and more from social media dependency. Social media is not all that bad but it removes us more and more from those organic experiences we should strive to engage in. The pastel colored theme of the episode is another aspect that made Nosedive feel more warm and realistic unlike the other Black Mirror episodes which are dark and overly futuristic.