Black Mirror Reflections: Nosedive
In a world where everyone has a rating that affects all aspects of life, how hard would you try to be “liked”?
For those who have not seen Black Mirror, what have you been doing with all of your free time and mental ease? Just kidding (sort of). But, for those of you who have not yet seen Black Mirror, it is an anthology series that explores the potential consequences of possible future technologies. It is dark and satirical, and has quickly become one of my all time favorite TV shows, for many reasons, the biggest being the way that it makes me think and question myself and the society that I am apart of.
Nosedive is the first episode of the third season of Black Mirror, and the first episode since the show has been taken over by Netflix. While this is not one of my top Black Mirror episodes, I still recommend it often to others, because I feel it is one of the more palatable/simple episodes. In my opinion, this episode would be a good way to get your feet wet with the series before moving onto some of the more complex, darker episodes. That being said, this episode certainly has some very dark undertones, and really forces us to look at ourselves and how social media is changing the way that we interact with ourselves and others.
The episode centers on a character named Lacie, who is living in a world where friends and strangers can rate each other’s popularity from one to five stars with a special technology in their phones and contact lenses in the eyes that display everyone’s name and rating when you look at them. These ratings go beyond simply being “liked” or popular, such as the pride that comes with getting a lot of likes on an Instagram picture- the ratings affect many aspects of life, and determine things such as rent prices, social standing, and employability. Lacie begins the episode with an approval rating of about 4.2. She wants to rent an apartment in a very nice neighborhood, but must have a rating of 4.5 to be able to do so. Which is why, when her old friend Naomi (rated 4.8) calls her out of the blue and asks her to be the maid of honor at her wedding, Lacie obliges, knowing that appearing at such a high caliber social event could greatly boost her rating.
The first part of the episode is filled with painful-to-watch interactions that are saturated with superficiality- Lacie rating her neighbors as they jog by her in the morning, and receiving a high rating in return, Lacie ordering a smiley face cookie and a coffee to snap a picture for her profile, only before drinking the coffee and wincing at the taste.
Everything in this world seems to be driven by the desire to be likable- but is that really that different from the world we are living in now? Over the past several years, social media has become increasingly pervasive. While social media can be great and help to spread messages and keep in touch with loved ones, it is my personal belief that it has also had some negative impacts on society and on us as individuals. With social media, people have the tendency to share the best versions of themselves, something we all do but often forget when we look at others’ posts. This makes it very easy for us to feel inadequate, or inferior, as we compare our entire lives to our peers’ refined, calculated social media presences that are packaged with a bow.
This episode, however, takes that impact and multiplies it to the extreme. In Nosedive, social media now affects more than just our perceived popularity and self esteem- it also has a tangible effect on the opportunities and luxuries afforded to us. We are shown how the effects of one’s rating bleeds into all aspects of life, including work life. In Lacie’s office,one of her coworkers now has a low rating because he just broke up with a significant other. In an attempt to boost his rating, he performs favors for his coworkers, such as offering them all free green smoothies. Lacie, however is the only one to accept, as she hasn’t yet tuned into the workplace politics, in which it is taboo to even interact with those with low ratings. She quickly catches on, however, and when her coworker’s rating sinks so low that he can no longer gain access to the building, she walks past him without a word.
In my opinion, this part of the episode sheds light on an interesting phenomenon that social media has really allowed to thrive- the concept of performing acts of kindness for the mere purpose of being better liked. While this is something that people have surely done for all of time, the ability to display acts of kindness on social media magnifies the temptation to do so. Lacie’s coworker probably would not have offered such nice things if he had a high rating, but because he does not, he performs these acts in the hopes that others will view him as a benevolent person and rate him as so, coloring his image on social media in a more positive light and resulting in an exponential increase in his rating.
While it is not exactly the same, a current-life parallel that I personally draw to this is what some people have dubbed “voluntourism”, which involves paying a lot of money to take a trip to an impoverished country and perform a good deed, such as building a house or delivering books to a school, while also taking time to do typical touristy things that one might do on a vacation. In the age of social media, it has become more common to see relics of these noble acts of benevolence in the form of an Instagram post- #imagoodpersoniswear.
This just ties into the tendency of the characters in this episode to use social media as a tool to paint a perfect image of themselves to present to others. What this episode does really well is force us to question just how far we’d go to maintain or improve that image. After Lacie is presented with the opportunity to improve her score by attending Naomi’s wedding, the episode takes us on a journey with Lacie to the wedding, rife with a series of mishaps that lower Lacie’s rating and consequently drive her into increasing madness. First, her flight is cancelled, and her rating is not high enough to have access to another ticket that night. Her desperate rudeness to the employee results in a deduction of her rating. This is followed by a series of unfortunate events, black mirror style, including one instance where Lacie is forced to seek refuge from a lady with a very low rating when she attempts to hitchhike to the wedding after her rental car breaks down.
This interaction is very interesting, as it offers a perspective of how people with low ratings are viewed- and that is not positively. When Lacie sees this woman’s rating, she backs away and almost refuses to ride with her. But the woman explains that she used to care about her rating, just like Lacie does. She tells her how her husband developed a terminal illness, and he was just a few decimal points away from being able to get the groundbreaking treatment to cure it. After he passed away, the woman just said “fuck it”, and decided to do her own thing and not care what people think.
While we certainly face some people today who seem to adopt a similar attitude, it is rare to see somebody really, truly not care. More often than not, being “different” or “going against the grain” or “being rebellious” are in and of themselves calculated personas that we can wear for the likes of social media attention. In this episode, where having a low rating really means having less access to things that would seem to lead to a good, happy life, saying “fuck it” is really quite a brave and bold move.
The episode comes to a culmination when Lacie arrives at the wedding, drunk and deranged, to finally deliver her perfect maid of honor speech. At this point in the episode, Lacie’s rating is so low, that she seems to have said “fuck it” herself, and her speech devolves into craziness. Still, Lacie is smiling and laughing, and seems to be getting a high from finally being able to express how she feels and totally disregarding how it may affect her rating. Still, as we see in the end of the episode, this lands her in some sort of jail, leading viewers to question- is it really worth it to try to disregard the standards that everyone in society are operating within, and do whatever you want to be happy? Or will that ultimately result in more unhappiness as a result of isolation from the rest of a conformist society?
If you lived in this world in Nosedive, what would you do?
