Social media is the new biggest media source since the invention of the printing press. In one way or another, you’ve most likely felt the effects of this new age of instagram models, youtube sensations or even popular snapchatters. While this new age of expression has boosted innovation and creativity, multimedia has exposed us to more mental health threats than ever. Whether it be fear of missing out (fomo), envy of your peers or even phone addiction, we’ve all been products of the social media age of anxiety. Where are living in an age defined by likes rather than authenticity. An age where we admire girls (Kardashians) who post half nude photography. An age where instant gratification took over willpower. These effects can leave an unprecedented effect on our mental health and view of the world by increasing our anxiety and depression. It is so easy to live a double life using social media that we often forget the person that we really are.
As media always does, there are many pieces that like to depict and analyze specific generations and time periods. One of those is in a Netflix television show called Black Mirror. This series features a fictional new plot, setting and story in each episode that has a message behind it relating to the real world that we live in. It is not a coincidence that they made an episode that relates to social media usage in our current society. The episode USS Callister has a message that we use social media to escape reality and build a virtual life that we have full control over. It shows that this type of control over our fake personalities is dangerous for our conscience and that we can use it in the wrong way. The antagonist, Robert Daly, built a virtual reality world where he trapped his colleagues in a space odyssey in which he has full power over every aspect of the game. His awkward real life personality forbids him from becoming the prominent leader that his alter ego desires to be. This compels him to abuse his power in his online world where his space fleet of colleagues (who remember the outside world) feel like slaves to him. He could say “Exit game” whenever he wanted to put his soul back into his real body. His real life business partner James Walton is a conspicuous man who runs their company while Robert Daly is the brains behind the whole operation. James Walton’s conspicuous personality and charm makes Robert Daly jealous of a popular lifestyle. This envy pushed Robert to abuse James and others into submission in his virtual world. Once the protagonist Nanette Cole is introduced into the real world, it is clear the Robert has a crush on her. He gets a sample of her DNA and simulates her into his virtual world where she is perplexed by her reality and believes that she is in a dream. She quickly learns that Robert is an all powerful god in this world but she does not submit to him. She immediately starts working on an operation to contact her real world self to free everyone from this torture. After much strategic planning, she figures out a way to free everyone.
There is a scene at the end of the movie that symbolizes social media dependance in our world. It was after the space fleet crew found an escape from the game and Robert Daly accepted defeat. To make matters worse this is where he found out that his soul was stuck in this game forever now. Alone in space, you hear the artificial intelligence in his spaceship repeating the phrase, “ Deletion in progress, rogue universe detected.”Robert Daly starts shouting “Undelete” several times but to no avail. Then he starts screaming “Exit game” while the computer just keeps repeating the same phrase. Furiotically, he keeps screaming “exit game” while slamming his steering wheel and progressively getting getting louder. This part depicted his frustration with his lack of control. The scene cuts off with him repeating the phrase with more and more profanity each time and the universe progressively becoming darker and darker. This represents his his inner stress and anxiety coming out while he has no control over it anymore because he was too deep into his own trap now. Literally. There is a parallel to social media usage and our inability to control our emotions once we have become obsessed with this fake personality that we build for ourselves. The scene cuts to his real world body sitting in his desk unconsciously while his eyes were faded and rolled back staring at the ceiling. Drool ran down the side of his mouth to show that he was not able to reenter his real life body. It looked as if he was possessed to say the least. This was a message that we become zombie like when we unlock our phones and scroll through instagram or snapchat. We no longer have control over our emotions or conscience. Whenever we want to take a break from something, we tend to pause the activity we are doing, look at our phones for a brief moment (even though it is usually not brief) and then go back to what we were doing. I can relate to this because whenever I was stuck whilst writing this essay, i would often look at my phone. The take away from USS Callister is it does not matter how much power you have or how much other people like you, you can never change how you feel about yourself. We saw that when you find a way to compensate with your feelings using alternative egos, you slowly destroy your soul and your mind. It teaches us that we will never be able to change how we truly feel about ourselves and we will only make that misery grow larger as we progress on the value of fictional lives.
- Cole’s songs, “Crooked Smile”and “03 Adolescence” both shine on teenagers insecurities. In the song “Crooked Smile”, J. Cole raps about a girl who doesn’t appreciate her physical beauty enough. Love yourself, girl, or nobody will, Though you a woman I don’t know how you deal, With all the pressure to look impressive and go out in heels, I feel for you, killin’ yourself to find a man that’ll kill for you, You wake up, put makeup on, Stare in the mirror, but it’s clear that you can’t face what’s wrong, No need to fix what God already put his paintbrush on.(J.Cole)” He is giving her a lesson that she has to love her physical and mental state. Once you try to compensate by faking your beauty or personality, you are no longer yourself. You must uphold an image of who you are online. The song “03 Adolescence”, J. Cole talks about his teenage years and how his lack of confidence prevented him from getting his dream girl. “In love with the baddest girl in the city, I wish I knew her, I wish I wasn’t so shy, I wish I was a bit more fly, I wish that I could tell her how I really feel inside, That I’m the perfect n***a for her, but then maybe that’s a lie, She like a certain type of n***a and it’s clear I’m not that guy, Ball player, star player, I’m just watchin’ from the side, On the bench, ’cause my lack of confidence won’t let me fly.” Both of these songs shine on the idea that people always desire to achieve love without being pleased with themselves first and that is why they stress so much. I believe this relates the the Black Mirror episode because the main character was unable to be the person he wanted to be in real life, so he had to become his fantasy character in a fictional universe. But that only ended up harming him and the people around him in the end. This relates to social media health because people try to take on fake identities using their social media accounts and pretend to be something that they actually are not. But when these people are no longer behind a screen, it is hard for them to fake this persona and this just makes them more upset when they do not get the same results that they expect. This just makes people more depressed. The reason we are so obsessed with social media is because it releases dopamine, a compound present in the body as a neurotransmitter that controls our pleasure, when we use social media. We have become addicted to this sense of instant gratification and attachment to the outside world that we have forgot what it is like to be lonely. We’ve forgotten whats its like to be in our own thoughts because we are constantly observing other people’s lives. Some people become envious of people’s lives and it keeps feeding their depression. People care a lot about their image online and that pushes them to compete with other online users. We spend too much time choosing which photo to post and we judge this with the amount of likes we receive. A study at the University of Pittsburgh, “found a correlation between time spent scrolling through social media apps and negative body image feedback. Those who had spent more time on social media had 2.2 times the risk of reporting eating and body image concerns, compared to their peers who spent less time on social media. The participants who spent the most time on social media had 2.6 times the risk (Hurley).” We try so hard to perfect ourselves and that lowers our self-esteem in the long run just like Robert Daly. We wish to be one thing but that is not what we are. J Cole shines on these desires since he was once a teenager. While teenagers always try hard to perfect their imagine, it’s becoming more and more of an issue with constant judgement around us.
There are two solutions to these problems proposed by social media and both take an insane amount of mental strength and courage. The first is to delete all of your social media accounts until you’ve lost the addiction. Two things can come out of this solution. You can learn to discover who you really are, not just in a virtual society which will make you an overall happier person. The second benefit is that you will learn to enjoy the moment and appreciate everything you are living instead of looking at a screen all the time. All of this comes with a sacrifice however. You will no longer be able to feed off of the dopamine rush that your brain needs when you are feeling lonely. The second solution is to simply be yourself on social media which allows you to keep your phone but requires a lot more courage in the process. Stop being so concerned with the amount of likes you receive, or quality of pictures you post. This will allow you to reach a term i coined called “social media freedom” where you have a blind eye for negative judgment. So what if someone judges you negatively. Those people are either not your friends, or just bad friends. And why would you want to surround yourself with those kinds of people? Some people online actually admire genuine personas online. Those are the people who reveal real courage and ferocity.
“USS Callister.” Black Mirror, Season 4, episode , 29, Dec. 2017 https://www.netflix.com/watch/80131567?trackId=14170286&tctx=3%2C0%2Cd7a99d88-1659-4c1b-8c50-f5e31011256b-4973506%2C2819d225-3a88-4be3-ba9e-6bc65619c796_11067877X3XX1551897210454%2C2819d225-3a88-4be3-ba9e-6bc65619c796_ROOT
“J. Cole (Ft. TLC) – Crooked Smile.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc., 4 June 2013, genius.com/J-cole-crooked-smile-lyrics.
“Social Media and Teens: How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health?” Hurley, Katie PsyCom.net – Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986, www.psycom.net/social-media-teen-mental-health.