5 Stars for 5 Stars ??? PLZ???
When I first watched the Black Mirror episode Nosedive, I was immediately struck by the depicted dystopian future. As incredibly narcissistic and fake as the society in Nosedive is, I think that if we don’t gradually limit our own obsession with social media, our society may begin to resemble the fictional one in ways we wouldn’t have even thought possible as little as 5 to 10 years ago.
Nosedive’s story takes place in a society that is based around a social media platform similar to the lovechild of Facebook, Uber, Tinder, and Instagram. Here, people constantly have to rate each other based on their profiles and their everyday interactions with one another, like, getting a coffee in the morning or interacting with your boss at work. If the user enjoyed the interaction, they have the choice of rating the other(s) out of a scale of 5, ultimately creating their “number”, or likability (I guess). As a result of the immense social pressure in trying to achieve a high rating, a lot of people act very fake in order to make it seem like they enjoy others’ company / posts, usually resulting in a higher rating for them. Unfortunately, this could go downhill rather fast as a low rating can often result in the user being shunned from their friend groups, their communities and at worst being exiled from the rest of the desensitized society.
Nosedive’s plot showcases many aspects that were discussed in the lecture on the Dark Side of Social Media. Statistics shown in the slides demonstrate a clear pattern that people aged 18–29 care immensely about social media and its affects on their social life irl. Analyzing further, the survey results detail that 90% of the age demographic uses social media for at least 2 hours per day. Disturbingly, some people even say that instead of the average 2 hours, they are sometimes on their phones / computers for upwards of 7 hours per day. Another interesting fact was both these numbers increased as the age demographic was lowered, begging the question when / if it will ever decrease? Now, I can’t see the future or anything but statistically speaking, our society could potentially be going in a similar direction to the one presented in Nosedive, although I would sincerely hope it wouldn’t go as far.
In order to prevent this, I think we as a society need to understand the effect that social media has on people. Some find it easy to troll behind a screen just because the victim can’t see their face. But, what these people need to realize is that words still have the same meaning, and it doesn’t make a difference just because you aren’t saying it directly to them. This creates the divide between people, almost sheltering some from expressing their feelings in person, and relying on social media platforms to give them the necessary safety to interact. Another aspect that people should realize is how social media seemingly effects popularity and stature in millennial culture. While it is cool to express yourself and give people a showcase of your life at any time of day, the result for many is an increase in stress & depression alongside a lack of attention. This is problematic as studies are showing these kinds of conclusions, but they have no real effect on people because they are so addicted and consumed by their social media life.
Oh well… I’m gonna go post something on Instagram. I’ll like back too dw.
