The internet has provided a plethora of benefits ranging from entertainment to platforms that connect people all around the world. However, due to these innovations, many are continuously glued to their devices and fail to look up and realize what they’re truly missing out on. This issue has rooted itself into millennials and is now trickling into children of new generations. As Angel Boligan illustrated in his “Let’s Play” piece, children are trapped in their own realities and too busy to appreciate the world. The Black Mirror episode, “Playtest” communicates how this problem follows them into adulthood. The heavy internet dependency has caused society to be stuck and unable to enjoy life’s simplest pleasures.
Angel Boligan, currently considered one of the greatest cartoonists with 137 international awards, created “Let’s Play” in efforts to bring to light the sad and surreal reality children face today. “Let’s Play” which was presented in Boligan’s exhibits and is now circulating through My Modern Met, centers the piece around a seemingly lonely individual that is dressed for soccer. Although the individual seems properly prepared for an exciting day at the park, the individual is the most out of place. The people surrounding the main subject are all on their smartphone devices, which points out how the internet is slowly taking away life’s simplest joys. Too often, people are attached to their smartphones for its easy accessibility to the internet causing people to be much more susceptible in missing out on their current experience. The use of color in Boligan’s piece is also interesting. For one, the only outfit that has color is the soccer player. This showcases how the soccer player is society’s last hope in embracing life’s beauties as it may be too late to help the others who are trapped. Furthermore, the background has color, but not bright or sunny like a day in a park should be. The colors are dulled down: the sky is dark blue rather than the standard sky-blue and the grass and trees are more gray than green. This can symbolize the decreasing appreciation of nature. When the soccer player entered the park, the player experienced nature’s true beauty: a bright blue sky and healthy green trees. However, since the individual’s intentions were to escape from a world of technology, the people on the park benches with their faces glued to their smartphones, presents the depressing reality in how the internet is taking over the world. After coming to that realization, the individual’s perception of life is dulled down; nature is no longer bright skies and green grass. Gradually, this soccer player will be like the others, lifeless and seated at the park benches. At some point, the kids on the bench were in the same situation this soccer player is currently in. This directly addresses the current zeitgeist as parks have become more obsolete. As parks like Central Park and the High Line maintain their mainstream popularity, many local parks have become less and less populated. Many teens and children seek other forms of entertainment, like attending movies, eating at a restaurant and documenting it on social media, or simply staying home to play video games or to access Hulu or Netflix. On one hand, the internet has connected people across the world, but on another hand, the internet has disconnected many from real experiences.
This disconnect continues its way into adulthood, which is communicated in the Black Mirror episode, “Playtest,” Cooper Redfield is travelling the world after his father’s death and eventually ends up Britain where he doesn’t have any money left. Cooper seeks to playtest a new game since he needs the money to get back home. The game turns out to be highly innovative and experimental as it augments reality. The game claims to be adaptive and tailored to the fears of the individual playing. After playtesting, Cooper books a plane home to see his mother, but it turns out he never really left the game. His phone rings in the playtest room, interfering with the game’s signal, which kills him. One scene that stood out was the travelling montage in the beginning of the episode, which showcased a bunch of pictures ranging from selfies to food pictures. And once the montage is over, the camera focuses on Cooper’s phone rather than his face or the scenery around him. Everything around him is first blurred out and the phone takes up about 50% of the screen and after he takes a selfie, Cooper loses his smile and his facial expressions make it seem like he simply doesn’t care about the place anymore. This also addresses the current social zeitgeist as many post pictures on social media to show off how great their food looks or how fun their vacation was. Rather than living in the moment and enjoying it, people’s enjoyment level correlates with what others are saying about their experiences.
During the time he was trying to go back home, Cooper was still in the game, but couldn’t tell. This brings to light an underlying metaphor as people are unable to tell apart from what’s real and what’s fake. Both the children in Boligan’s piece and Cooper Redfield in “Playtest” were trapped in their own realities and couldn’t escape because they didn’t know how to. The children are too busy keeping up with fake or augmented experiences their friends or celebrities post rather than looking up and seeing the world for its true value. Same goes for Cooper as he was busy running away from his real problems and falsely presenting his vacation as enjoyable. And as an adult, he still couldn’t tell apart from what was real or fake, which ultimately led to his death.
Often, people find themselves addicted to the internet and are unable to escape it. As communicated in “Let’s Play,” Angel Boligan brings to light how children are trapped in their own realities and are disconnected from what’s truly real. While the Black Mirror episode, “Playtest” showcases the effects of this disconnect leading into adulthood. As children are handed devices at an early age, they already begin disconnecting from reality and get addicted to the internet. Addressing the problem at its root would be most effective in solving it, but if this problem goes ignored, will society be able to tell what’s real or not in the future?