Nosedive or Mean Girls 3.0
It was probably not the best decision to watch this episode three hours before I was about to leave for my Friday night, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Needless to say, it left me shook, and in an existential crisis. I was over here thinking that I was going have a lit night out in the city, with no worries and with no heavy thoughts about anything. This episode changed that, I left class feeling heavy-hearted and with a pang of fear. I doubted every life decision I have ever made, and thought to myself, am I slowly going crazy?
It felt like I just watched a weird version of Mean Girls, that was so strangely realistic. I felt that the dystopian reality of Nosedive was one that we were all experiencing, especially with the age of social media metrics. Everyone acted like the plastics in Mean Girls. Superficial, fake and unrealistic.
I always find myself comparing my numbers on social media to the people that I follow and see on my various discover pages. I guiltily admit to associating popularity, and how well-liked an individual is, with regards to their social media metrics. It comes down to the whole concept I mentioned in my last blogpost about how sometimes I associate likes/followers/followings with how others feel about each other. I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but if I see that someone has only 18 followers, compared to someone who has 300, I automatically assume that something may not be right. I automatically assume that the individual may not be well-liked. Or, I assume that they have done something or said something rude to offend others.
When I reflect on my actions, I am stunned because it is basically the premise of Nosedive. Individuals on the show speak to each other based on their social media likings and they judge each other based on numerical values given to them by others. This made me think, are we equally as superficial? Do we do the exact same but in a more subtle manner?
I would say that the answer is yes. In the show we can see that everyone kept illustrating their highlight reels on their social media platforms, in which they were judged on. This is similar to what many of us do on our social media platforms as well. I personally find that my Instagram is filled with moments that aren’t even close to how I live or feel on a daily basis. The reason I do this is for the likes, and it is in the hopes that I am accepted by others.
I find that I suppress my true emotions, and always advocate a happy, and extravagant lifestyle, because I know that those types of posts are the ones that receive the most attraction. I find it strange that, anything associated with raw and realistic human experiences is often shunned away, or even deemed as “so beg” and “attention seeking”. This is similar to what many of the characters in the dystopian reality did too. They would only post pictures that depicted happiness, and they would constantly exude this fake attitude in hopes to increase their likings. Anytime they would express, sadness, anger or genuine emotions- their ‘likeness’ would decrease. This is evident when Lacie expressed her frustrations at the airport when her flight got cancelled. Her ratings from other individuals went down because she was showing REAL HUMAN EMOTIONS. This part left me the most shook. It was almost like being plastic, and being fake was what was liked. There was no genuine behaviour, or authenticity amongst the individuals. It almost felt like there was no escape from this behaviour, as everyone followed it.
An element of the show that I thought was evident in today’s reality was of how individuals with higher rankings and metrics received special perks. In the show, individuals with rankings higher than a 4.5 had the ability to have lower rent, go on vacations for a cheaper price, and attain perks that others with lower rankings were not be able to. For example, Lacie would have been able to pay cheaper rent for a new condo, if she boosted her ratings to a 4.7 from a 4.3. These kinds of perks are evident with many of the current social media platform users in our reality. For instance, we can see that many social media influencers, with high followings, are able to go on free vacations, and receive free products from expensive companies. However, individuals with low follower metrics can’t. It seemed ridiculous to me on the show, but then I realized it’s actually happening our reality too but different ways.
I also found it interesting how the socialites in the show only associated themselves with other socialites. They were strategic with whom they collaborated with and how they executed their posts. We could see that with Naomi, Naomi was particular about the guests she invited to her wedding, as they were are high 4.8–5.0s. She knew she would boost her exposure and increase her ratings, if she reached out to the different audiences others had. It’s similar to the strategies we currently see on social media. Instagrammers with high followers collaborate those like them, and take photos together in hopes of gaining more followers through more exposure.
What related to me the most was the moment in the show that illustrated Lacie spending endless hours scrolling through other people’s feeds and wishing that her life was like theirs. I sometimes find myself scrolling through Instagram and other social media feeds and wishing that I was doing what others were doing, or wearing what they were wearing, or meeting the people they were meeting. I find myself thinking that my life is not as fulfilling as it could be. I find myself sitting in isolation, looking at fake realities, and thinking why I can’t craft something life that in real life. I find that my perception about how others live life has been morphed.
What scared me the most about this episode was the idea of not being able to escape from the social readings. It was almost like if you left your social media presence, you also left your actual existence. A part of me wanted to jump into the screen, take Lacie’s phone and throw it away. She couldn’t see that it was consuming her, and that it was turning her into a mess. Everything about her was associated with those rankings, and it was almost as if turning them off would make her presumably an outcast or a non-existent individual. I find that in real-life even, not being on social media can often result in missing out on certain events, or even not being able to make conversation with other individuals. This is because a lot of the things we tend to speak about are in context with things we see online. I specifically remember not knowing where “Cash me outside how bout dah” came from, and I couldn’t necessarily partake in some conversations with my friends. Or better yet, when I first came into university, I did not have FaceBook, and I felt ‘left-out’ because I didn’t know about the various events that were happening. It’s hard to escape it, especially if we want to feel involved with those around us.
Over-thinking about this episode always leaves me feeling with an internal conflict, it scares me, and it scares me because it is so similar to reality.
