Mr. Masincupp introduced to us as a class a new series and after giving us a brief summary about what the show is about, I stayed up until 12am that night because after i finished my homework I decided to watch an episode and I haven’t been able to stop watching. Heres a brief summary if the first episode. This is a world where every interaction could change your fate forever. Everyone has a score from 0-5. Your average rating could determine if you’re qualified for a job or if you are allowed to buy a house in a certain area of town. Often people of middle class are around a 4-4.4 average rating. The elites are around 4.6 and above. These are the upper class citizens that live in mansions with high paying jobs. The character of this episode, is Lacie Pound. She wants to buy a luxurious house in a more expensive neighborhood but she cannot afford the weekly payments. However if she reaches a 4.5, she can qualify for a 20% discount. While figuring out what to do, her childhood bully reaches out to her asking her to be the maid of honor at her wedding. They’re both extremely fake to each other and both are only in it for the points. She plans to give a tear-jerking speech where all the prime members (the elites) attending the wedding will all give her a resounding reviews. Basically yelp but for humans.
For me, the most interesting part was the end of the episode and how Ironic it was. She ended up getting to the wedding after a 9 our truck ride due to the flights being canceled and uninvited to the wedding. After being arrested, she insults a man in the cell next to her as he stares at her for a creepy amount of time. What’s interesting is that while she’s in this cell, she begins to speak her mind because she stops caring about what others think. It’s Ironic because while physically she’s imprisoned, mentally she’s been set free.
I feel like the scariest thing about Black Mirror isn't just the plot, but that this really could be what our world looks like during our lifetimes. Even now, people put so much value on likes and comments, using them to determine their self worth. The world in this episode may seem super techy and impossible, but we are much closer than we realize. What do you think is the effect of being so obsessed with social media and the way that others perceive us on these sites?
ReplyDeleteEven though this seems unreal in any society around the world. Some countries like China are starting to apply this to their society. I don't know if this is a good idea on their part because the people living in China would most likely end up like the people in Black Mirror in the near future. I would strongly disagree if this system was implemented into the U.S. It would prevent us from being able to express our thoughts freely.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how a government would control out lives just like in China where they are actually adding and taking away points from each person. I think that it is not right at all to judge if a person got into a school or got a job based off of how many points they had. I could see how people could go crazy in China just like how the main characters in Black Mirror did.
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