My First Impression on Black Mirror's "Nosedive"

I was recommended to watch the new Netflix series Black Mirror's episode of "Nosedive" by someone. Originally, I thought that it wouldn't impress me. I'm usually not into scientific, futuristic shows like this one. But on one particular night, I thought, "Why not? Might as well give it a try!" I chose this episode because it sounded the most intriguing to me, and I went ahead with it.

This episode centers around a young, bright, cheery red-head by the name of Lacie Pound. She lives in a futuristic dystopia where everyone is deemed worthy by how much they are rated out of 5. Whenever Lacie interacts with another person, they rate her by how polite and kind she is, whether she swears or not, how she comes off, etc. Lacie gradually becomes obsessed with stalking one of her old friends from her childhood, Naomi Blestow, who is rated a 4.8 out of 5. From the looks of social media, she seems to have the perfect life: blonde, skinny, beautiful, and happily in a relationship. She eats healthy, exercises, and practices yoga. Lacie then becomes determined to take her 4.2 rating to the next level. She currently lives with her brother Ryan, but wants to move out and find her own place. She then discovers a beautiful, luscious, exclusive area. However, there's a catch. She must obtain a rating of 4.5 or higher in order to be eligible for a discount. This motivates her to raise her rating. She posts a photo of her old rag doll that she shared with Naomi online, in which she rates 5 stars. To Lacie's surprise, Naomi calls her and announces to Lacie that she is officially engaged, and the wedding is in one month. She asks Lacie to be her maid of honor. Lacie visits her Reputelligence advisor, who then informs her that if she interacts with that many 5 star people, then she can definitely raise her rating to a 4.5 or higher. However, along the way to the wedding, Lacie's flight is cancelled, and she gets angry, dropping her rating a whole star. She is then forced to rent a car, but the car runs out of charge, which further angers her. Lacie's rating gradually drops to below 2 stars. Naomi then discovers this, and angrily un-invites Lacie to her wedding. All along, Naomi only cared about ratings, and that is the prime reason why she invited Lacie. A dirty, smelly, un-showered, tired, exhausted Lacie is still determined to be there, and crashes Naomi's wedding, where she gives a powerful speech on how this society is so dependent on social media and how much we care about what other people think of them.

This brings me to my own analysis. This episode gave me a look into what is very well possible for our own future. We are so obsessed with what people think of us, not taking into account that we are all unique, talented, unbelievable individuals that are worthy even without society's approval. We are so scared and embarrassed to be our true selves. We turn to social media to make our selves feel better, and we post the pictures that look like we're truly happy from the outside. But in fact, that's not the truth. Many people who post these pictures are not as happy-go-lucky as they may seem. They want to put up a fake wall around them to protect them, to trick people into thinking they have perfect lives. In fact, these people are really caught up in what people think about them and often compare themselves to others. We want others to think of us as perfectly flawless and worthy. The cold, hard truth? NONE OF THIS IS EVEN REMOTELY REALISTIC. That couple who seems to have a perfect relationship? The girl is abused by her boyfriend daily. That drop-dead gorgeous, skinny blonde girl? She starves herself so she can look "perfect". We are all humans, and we all have our fair share of flaws; we all of our own weaknesses. We as a society need to stop feeding others fake information. We can't live our lives thinking that we need to be perfect anymore. We need to stop being obsessive with what others view us as and we need to be our own unique, charming, selves. Although this rating system is not in existence yet, I can see it happening in our very near future. Our obsession with looks and personality is only becoming increasingly worse. And if we keep this up, we could very well be headed into this "Nosedive"-esque world.