A True Dystopian Reality (with Black Mirror references) *Spoiler Alert!*

The Black Mirror episode I chose to analyze is Fifteen Million Merits from season one. The premise of the episode takes place inside a world where people are driven by the need to collect points (which acts as the currency) from consuming media on a daily basis in order to sustain their lifestyle, people in this world are essentially brainwashed slaves to the media as jobs are distributed to very few individuals who have high capability in contributing to a ‘channel’ within the world. Our main protagonist falls in love with a girl and foolishly sacrifices his fifteen million points for her to pursue her dream of singing on a show. The judges of the show are cruel and she ends up being sexually exploited for her appearance, not her talent. There are some main ideas in the show that I want to point out which may be a determinant for this dystopian reality:

• Database being made available across platforms can be utilized or modified to a personal agenda. An example is large conglomerates like Facebook who owns Instagram can have an competitive edge of advertising power to target the same demographic. These vanity metrics and the media engagements can create a standardized system of consumers’ need for materialistic things.
• It’s important to also note it can affect social media addiction and those who are seeking validation for their inferiority. A strong level of personal branding equates to more followers, which gives a certain reputation for the person to excel in their line of work or be blinded by fame to the point where they are not representing a true version of themselves.
• This can also relate to the hype of new media that is molding opinions of social media users on social trends and issues in real life (ie. in regards to the White Helmet rescue program in Syria, there was the poster girl who was repeatedly featured several times on different news outlets).
• The exploitation of people and their knowledge and talents is a theme that can be seen in this episode. Consumers have been pirating movies, music, and TV shows for more than a decade and it has strong implications for the entertainment industry in its unstable growth for the economy.
• People ignore ads yet they are consumed by the subliminal messages and are prone to indulge in drama, sexual, and scandalous acts on the internet more than real life issues; doing so can send a huge negative snowball effect on an individual or a community (ie. the protests of the Dakota Pipeline; #NODAPL were a lost cause because not enough people or large companies cared enough)-
• During one part of the episode, the scene was panned out to reveal that there are levels of the exercise room where people are slaving away their lives which can coincide with the “Big Brother” conspiracy theory which is how we are being watched by a higher authority (ie. NSA surveillance activities).

Towards the end, our protagonist ends up collecting another fifteen million points to cash them in for a ticket on the show. He tries he break out of this gruelling cycle and develops an angsty character to make a statement. The judges allow him to perform with a personal channel that’s ONLY broadcasted for his scripted self. I think this shows how people are quick to judge when they are absorbed in their own filter bubble of social media. For example, there is a lot of critics on Youtube who comment on vlogs not realizing that it’s edited to make it seem like people’s lives are perfect to a tee. What we see isn’t all that we get.