I tend to fall on the show bandwagon a few years after the hype, due to me wanting to be immersed in my own time. So, when season 4 released for "Black Mirror", I knew it was time to start watching. The pilot episode of the show left me wary if I would love the series because I couldn’t grasp the concept. But after episode two, “Fifteen Million Merits” where the characters were trapped in a society where they had to gain points playing games to be able to showcase their talents to a reality show in a chance of freedom, I was hooked. Here are a few other episodes that resemble a near reality:

*Some Spoilers Ahead

1. "The Entire History of You"

In this episode, a device named "the grain" is implanted in peoples' heads. The device gives them the ability to visually document everything that happens throughout the day and they can look back at it later. The purpose of the device was to be able to have an unlimited supply of memories, but this turned into human nature of analyzing past moments. The closest technology to this is glasses called Spectacles, created by Snapchat. These glasses can document 10 seconds videos of what is in your surroundings while wearing them.

2. "Men Against Fire"

Censorship and altered reality is a big theme in this episode. The military is implanted with a device that changes what they experience during battles to desensitize the atrocities of war. The point of view is through the character of Stripe. He is set on his first mission of extracting people infected with a virus that makes them look like insects. The army’s goal is to eradicate all the infected. His implant is defected while in a combat fight and he eventually discovers that the government was using the military to kill the poor, sick, and not fit for society. A scary aspect was that the rest of society was acting on mob mentality and was not brainwashed. A virus did not exist. The idea of high tech warfare used with the mob mentality that society can bring about is obviously bad.

3. "Nosedive"

This episode is revolved around social media and hierarchy. Actor Dallas Howard portrays a woman who lives in a society that uses an app to give points for socially acceptable actions. It's essentially a popularity contest. She reconnects with an old friend from high school and is determined to get her social star rating up with the elites. People who have high star ratings are rich and live lavish lifestyles, while people with low star ratings are limited in society. A new app called AliPlay in China is based on the higher your worth, the better your credit (Zhima Credit) will be in the app.

4. "Ark Angel"

People would do anything to protect their children, and for years there have been apps and devices that help with that. The Ark Angel chip is inserted in the child’s brain and gives the parents ability to know times of distress and censor whatever they deem harmful. A dog barking would be blurred or blood pixelated. As the child grows older her view of what’s good and bad is skewed because she did not get to genuinely experience that. Her mother becomes more stressed as she gets older than relieved with this software. Apps like Weenact and NetNanny have GPS trackers or censorship for websites and shows. Another app is AngelSense, which allows you to GPS detect your children and listen in on their conversations. The realization of this episode is not the technology but the consequences of the parental control devices and censorship that are present. Sometimes Black Mirror scares you with not what could be but with what already is.

5. "Shut Up and Dance"

"Shut Up and Dance" left me on the edge of not showcasing the purpose of the episode till around the middle. It begins with what you expect: a teenage boy watching porn and becoming blackmailed, to other people also being blackmailed and ordered to have tasks to complete. They rob a bank, fight to the death, and in the end, their sins of watching torture porn are released to the media. Hacking is prominent in society; we especially see it in some negative respects when personal information like nudes are leaked. Groups like Anonymous are known as hacktivists. Positive aspects have been when corruption is exposed through hacking and releasing information to the public. The Sony and iCloud Hack were big invasions of privacy in the media, but mixed outcomes made it unclear of the morality of it. This episode made me want to put tape on my laptop and phone camera just in case the NSA is watching.

6. "Hated in the Nation"

This episode revolves around a group of law officials trying to track down the mind behind hacking autonomous drone insects. The insects were hacked and used as a weapon to kill specific people in the media who were deemed "bad" by followers. The drone insects, structured as honeybees, were created to help with the extinction of bees. There is an unlikely plot twist in what the actual targets of the killer in the episode is. Once the bees are deactivated, a kill switch of killing every person involved in exclaiming on social media who dies is activated. The concept of cyberbullying and how social media is consumed without consequences at times is prevalent. People at times become disconnected from their actions on the internet. This episode tells us we should be conscious of the environment and the people around us.

While "Black Mirror" seems to have a biased view that technology brings more consequences than solutions, the show's purpose is to get the viewer to consciously think about how technology is used in society. Do you use technology for good? Are you aware of the impact it has on you and others? You can binge watch Black Mirror on Netflix.