Black Mirror is one of the jewels of television that, instead of hypnotizing us and making us forget the world around us, motivates us to be more critical of our daily reality. It’s not a regular series, there’s no connection between episodes, there’s no reason to see it in order, nor does it force us to run a marathon for hours. Sometimes it’s hard to digest. Today we bring an episode of the third season, titled Nosedive.
It is a chapter that, although futuristic, reminds us greatly of the world in which we live today, and this is no different in Black Mirror, because as the creator, Charlie Brooker, has said many times, his inspiration comes not from fantasy, but from our own contemporaneity.
- Nosedive is a great reminder of the invasion of social media that we live in today and makes us realize how dangerous and unreal they can be.
With Bryce Dallas Howard as Lacie, Nosedive presents us with a perfect world, where there are no grays and everything has pastel colors, from clothes to houses and furniture. Everything is wonderful and idyllic in this not too distant future; however, as on social media, this world hides a very bitter face.
Lacie is the protagonist of this story, of this ecosystem in which people measure themselves their popularity in an application very similar to Instagram, where 0 is the lowest score and 5 the maximum. Thanks to the evaluations of others and the network of contacts, you can get a better job, buy a flat and enjoy many benefits. What if we took what we see on Instagram completely seriously?, what if we started classifying people according to their popularity on a social network?
Black Mirror, once again, reminds us of the most hidden side of our world, puts before our eyes a truth that we know, but that we seem to ignore, if you have not yet seen the episode, it is better not to keep reading, because I feel compelled to give spoilers to address the most important issues it deals with.
Do we check Facebook, Instagram, Twitter every day ?, everyone has their preferences, but it is undeniable that social networks will soon be part of our lives, they are the image that we want to give the world, what we would like to be, but we are not; the best face of our daily lives.
In Black Mirror, the star app serves to rate people, just like Instagram likes, except that these points are social points, work beyond networks and determine your life in reality.
Lacie is a popular young woman, even if she is not part of the elite, has a good job, but her life could be much better, she is completely addicted to social media and constantly tries to capture the attention of an older childhood. friend, Naomi, a beautiful young woman with a perfect life who is about to get married.
Voting can be public or anonymous, and the impact of a bad grade can be devastating. Therefore, all the inhabitants of this world try to behave according to the rules, are kind and claim to be “perfect”.
Let’s think for a moment on Instagram, the accounts we follow, the most popular accounts, they are all full of false happiness, of a painfully perfect beauty; What if we transferred him to real life?We can try a multitude of filters to look good in a photo, we can measure everything we post, but we can’t please everyone on a daily basis.
It means moving the codes from our social networks to the real world, where not only would we act badly in trying to please and show our best face, but those likes that we receive on Instagram or Facebook would be used to determine our social position.
In, everyone acts correctly with others, with a cordiality that is uncomfortable because, deep down, we know that it is not real, it is pure selfishness, they are not trying to please or help, but to improve their own image.
Naomi proposes to Lacie to be her bridesmaid at the wedding, Lacie accepts without hesitation, despite the insistence of her brother, who remembers that Naomi did very badly in the past. Lacie needs to go to this wedding because it will be full of people with very high scores, and you can get the 4. 5 needed to fund the floor that interests you.
Naomi, for her part, does not invite Lacie to be a good friend or share childhood memories, but she does so because she thinks it might be interesting to bring a friend from school with a 4. 2. No one really acts, no one thinks about the other, there is only the “I” and imagine this project of my “I”.
This extreme concern for the image, our projection in the world, reminds us a lot of our reality. It is not unlikely that we will immerse ourselves and it certainly reminds us of the situations experienced by ourselves.
Do we all want to share images of a delicious meal, a wonderful evening with friends, an unforgettable trip, a simple coffee on a terrace?We measure absolutely everything we publish, we think about who will see it and what others will think.
We live in a world that is a little less human and more technological every day, but fortunately we always maintain contact, daily contact with our colleagues and friends, and we have a small space where we can be ourselves.
We all know what we want to be, some even have someone to imitate, but is that really what we want?Throughout the episode, we observe how Lacie’s personality is extremely conditioned, does not choose her food, eats the socially good; he doesn’t like the cake that accompanies the café, but he claims it, this conditioning, this new way of interacting and the extreme lie make the characters unable to handle a conflict, to say what they think, for fear of reducing their score.
Black Mirror immerses us masterfully in a contemporary mask dance, with filters in real life, where everything is pastel color, everything is seemingly perfect, but no one is happy in reality, no one can be so happy, no one can always be happy and no one can worship everyone.
This extreme Instagram, with the wedding invitation, will make Lacie obsessed with popularity, something that will be truncated by a series of unforeseen events that will lead Lacie to be herself, to set aside the mask, to become human.
It is human to have feelings, not to think like others, it is human to express one’s anger. But in such a perfect world, humans have no place. The fall of Lacie is nothing more than a liberation; He ends up in jail, but he’s free.
It’s not the walls that oppresses her, it was society and, once outside, she can finally scream, she can be herself. The final scene in which Lacie lost her mind, when she realizes she no longer has her mobile phone and enters. in a loop of screaming with his fellow inmate, it’s a liberating and hopeful scene. There is no prison bigger than us, there is no greater slavery than a dehumanized world.
“No one can be so happy. ” -Black mirror-