Nosedive: Too Close For Comfort
While watching this episode of Black Mirror, I could see a lot of myself in Lacie.
Lacie is trying so hard to get that 4.5 ranking in a society that is obsessed about maintaining a high likability score. On the other hand, I find myself looking for validation and my own likability score in other ways. Likes on Instagram, favourites and retweets on Twitter, and likes on the pictures I post on Facebook. Lacie and I are a lot alike in that we try really hard for people to like us and validate us. As much as I don’t like to admit it, I am constantly looking at the numbers on my accounts because it is always in the back of my mind when I post anything. When the number of likes on my Instagram isn’t as high as it usually is, I wonder what I did wrong or what I could have done better. I hate that I do it, but I still do.
When Lacie is striving to live in Pelican Cove, she worked really hard to raise her score in order to be able to afford to live there. Believe me, if my online social media profile would help me get a one bedroom condo on the Harbourfront with an actual window (compared to the windowless room I live in currently), I would update it in a heartbeat! But the world doesn’t work like that, as much as we sometimes wish it did. We cannot equate our social currency to actual currency — our social presence will not pay our bills without #spon at the end.
A lot of what the episode entails is how Lacie feels about what she posts on social media, how people interact with her, and how she is rated. I am very aware and self-conscious of how people perceive me. The moment that stood out the most for me was when Lacie was looking at herself in the mirror, trying to look her best and happiest so other people see her that way. I have never been confident in my body or how I look in general so I’ve always struggled so see myself positively in a mirror and have found myself in a similar position to Lacie, trying to find the best way to present myself for others. I have always strived to make everyone like me, even though I know that it’s impossible.
I still haven’t reached the point of mental breakdown with how I feel about my social media presence, and here’s hoping I can skip that part and get to the point where I don’t care about rankings anymore and can focus on my own wellbeing (and not end up in jail).
This dystopian reality is happening already, just not necessarily as technologically advanced as this episode depicts. We are experiencing a world where all of our validation is made online and can do it without actually interacting with others. This episode is terrifying because of how realistic the idea of a point system of living could be. I am really hoping that society does not veer that way in the future.
