First Draft-1000 Words

The way in which social media and technology can inhibit one’s well being is fairly ambiguous since this is a fairly new phenomenon. Social media is fairly new invention yet it has quickly become so ingrained into so many of people’s lives. Most people do not go a day without checking their Instagram, opening a Snapchat, posting a Tweet, or sending a message on Facebook. If we go back just a decade or fifteen years, social media was not as broadly used by the masses and nowhere near as many people have a means to access it as well as the internet as they do today. The effect this could have on our modernizing society is profound.

The show “Black Mirror” is a series developed in the United Kingdom and broadcast via the Netflix platform exclusively. It is often described as an anthology, which roughly means several works grouped together, as the episodes of the series are not related to one another. The series goes in depth as a commentary on how the dark intentions of humankind as well as all the modernizing technological inventions and innovations collide. The series is set in the future, however, it seems to be the not so distant futures as the show portrays. Every unique episode in one way or another portrays the protagonists trying to fight different kinds of technologies who have turned toxic. Some episodes, such as “Fifteen Million Merits”, “Nosedive”, and “Hang the DJ”, focus on technology with regards to social media which modernized to contain all kinds of new invasive software and fighting it.  

In the fourth episode, “Hang the DJ”, people live inside a matchmaking system which tells people who to date at specific times, for specific times, and where to go. Two strangers would get a ping from a circular voice active touch screen device telling them exactly where to go and who to meet. It would schedule the introductory date at certain time and certain place. The two people would meet and they have the option of knowing right away how long their relationship will last or they can choose not to check. Relationships can last as short as a day or as long as couple years, after enough relationships the system will choose two people to marry assessing the compatibility. When the couples date, everything is planned out by the system, the system even has a system of self driving cars to deliver people to where it schedules them to be. The twenty-four hour relationships can be a reference to apps like Tinder, designed for quick hookups, because as the show suggested all the people did in their one day relationships was eat, go home, and have sex. These types of relationships generated by tinder could be fun for a night but they aid in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, herpes, syphilis, chlamydia, etc. The psychological damage can also play a role not having anything solid. The other reference being made here is that all these relationships started online by social media and matchmaking services are really superficial and usually do not go well or last. In the end of the episode, the couple breaks out of the system, out of the social network spotlight in everyone’s eyes, and only then they can exist together happily.

In the first episode of the third season, “Nosedive”, the world is run under system of severe ethos, which means credibility. People are constantly giving each other different ratings for every single interaction they have. One bad rating can ruin a place and it can be caused by the most minor of incidents, biases, or feelings. It really shows the power that someone with an internet presence has on a person as well as on a business. It can be a sort of commentary for the way Yelp, among other reviewing platforms, and the way they affect locals. People’s business can simply go out of business due to horrible online reviews, along with that goes their livelihoods, family life, marriages, stability, homes, savings, retirement, and health. The power of social media and the internet knows no bounds.

In the first episode of the second series, “Fifteen Million Merits”, it depicts how a man wakes up and goes about his day. It is visible how he is in some sort of jail complex where he is forced to peddle to gain a form of currency known as “merits” and also watch all sorts of advertisements. He earns merits for constantly watching ads and everything he does or purchases requires a payment of merits. This is a reference to the way our society is run with ads now bombarding us literally everywhere. On every video on YouTube (and most online media sources), on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, television, Hulu, phone games/apps, and even on every webpage. These ads are so frequent in our lives they actually have serious influence in our product, food, and lifestyle choices, which is why the show is set in a jail, we are slaves to these ads. With society modernizing, these ads are about to start popping up in more places and will become even more invasive. These ads can serve malignant purposes because they can be for faulty products and services and end up causing much more harm than good.

Stromae, is an international star from Belgium, and he speaks predominantly French. His song “Carmen”, of the “Racine Carree” album, is a modern take on “Habanera” from the famous French opera also entitled “Carmen” by Bizet. Stromae, has retouched and repurposed the song to be about twitter and its lasting effects on a person and on society. While it is aimed directly at twitter, it can be an allusion to all social media in general. The song makes many indirect claims of how you have to be careful on twitter and how it can control what you love and what you consume. The music video has powerful symbolism as well showing a young boy and young bird grow. The boy walks around with twitter and is constantly on his phone gaining followers, likes, retweets, and more. As he grows taller and skinner so does the bird. It rides on his back and eventually gets so big that it crushes him and puts him on its back. It eventually takes him to his death to be eaten by an even bigger bird. The power of social media to take control of our lives and impact us so negatively is evident.