A Digital Dystopia
We have all heard of the different depictions of dystopian realities in various works of fiction. From A Brave New World to Nineteen Eighty-Four to Fahrenheit 451, we have seen many possible scenarios. Recently in the RTA 902 class, the episode of Black Mirror titled “The Entire History of You” was shown for viewing. In this episode, a future is depicted where nearly every citizen has a device implanted in them that records everything they see or hear as well as given the ability to replay certain memories and deconstruct them. The episode at hand showed the story of a marriage that falls apart when the husband uses the advanced technology to discover that his wife cheated on him. This plot piece goes to show the increased vulnerability that everyone with the implant is ultimately subjected to as everything that everyone does is recorded and stored in a databank, everything from just casual things to incriminating things are now stored and can be brought up at anytime unless it gets wiped — to which I’m sure that wiped files could be pulled up by government agencies somehow in this fictional world, the technology looks fairly advanced. In this blog post, I would like to make the case that this episode depicts a dystopian future and that this Black Mirror episode is reflective of what is already taking place in today’s real world.
The idea of every living memory being stored in a databank of the mind is an exaggerated view and a futuristic evolutionary step of what is happening today in the sense of social media. Social media has provided a platform for everyone with technological accessibility to post whatever they wish onto it. And millions of people do so, millions of active social media users post several aspects of their lives publicly across the various platforms they use. This essentially creates the “databank” I referred to in relation to the Black Mirror episode in a metaphorical sense. When someone in the depicted future of the episode sees something, it is recorded and stored in the mental databank, just like how when someone posts something on social media, it is stored in the online databases and remains on the platform indefinitely. In addition to this, whatever is posted, can come back to bite the poster in the butt because whatever it is that has been posted, has the ability to be taken out of context and be used against them for the purpose of defamation of character, or to prove some kind of point. The case in point that I would like to present is the recent controversial event regarding Milo Yiannopoulos. For those who are unaware, Milo is the famous gay conservative former senior editor of Breitbart News who also tours across American university and college campuses to give speeches and presentations. However, a wrench was thrown in front of his path to success when a controversial video from nearly a year prior was re-brought up to public attention. The video depicted Milo on a podcast describing his experience with child abuse from a Catholic priest when he was 13 years old and how his provocative humor helps him cope with his trauma and how it helped him develop sexually. The mistake he made was when he tried to apply his personal experiences to all young people and screwed his wording making it sound like he was defending pedophillia. Once this video resurfaced back into public attention, there was an immense backlash against Milo to which he resigned from Breitbart and lost his book deal. Fortunately for Milo, things are looking to be back on track for him. However, this example just goes to show how social media is a database that stores everything that you say on there, and meticulous efforts can be conducted to use what you say against you and nearly have your career and/or reputation destroyed.
Just like how Fi’s infidelity was stored in the mental databank and other recorded incriminating pieces of evidence used by Liam to suspect that she is cheating were present and allowed for the investigation to take place in the Black Mirror episode, the same way how Milo’s reputation and career was affected when a year old video was used in an attempt to take him down. The funny thing I find is how some people seem to complain and fear for their privacy being in jeopardy when Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks blow the whistle on government surveillance of the public when the same people also publicly post aspects of their lives on social media. It’s this subconscious hypocrisy and backwards forced surveillance that takes place when those people post to social media, they’re essentially allowing themselves to be surveilled because anyone can find out what coffee shops they go to, what bars and clubs they go to, what car they drive, what school they go to, where they’ve traveled recently, where they work, which area they live, who they associate with, and many other things all because they post these things to social media — and you bet the government uses that data as well. At the end of the day, Big Brother is watching, because the people send him what to watch.
#RTA902
