I recently started watching Netflix’s Black Mirror after hearing it was like the Twilight Zone for the 21st century. It was a British television show before Netflix got its hands on it and acts as an anthology, where each episode has a new storyline that has to do with modern technology. Intrigued, I tuned in, not knowing what to expect nor what the show was about.
Ten minutes in and I was hooked.
Black Mirror reminds me of that Dave Eggers novel titled The Circle, a story about the dangers of making people omnipresent with technology. Information about people’s past and present is available online, in the novel, and everyone is ‘transparent’ due to cameras they wear to show the world that they have nothing to hide. In fact, The Circle has a few politicians who wear these cameras to show good faith to the voters. However, as the story goes on, it comes to light that maybe having the world at one’s fingertips isn’t as ideal as one would think. Why? Because once someone knows other people are watching, they become dishonest and wear a mask that hides their true selves from the world. Black Mirror is similar in exploring the darker themes of today’s technology, and the possible technology of tomorrow, as the episodes center around different technological breakthroughs that cause their own problems.
Take Season 1, Episode 3 “The Entire History of You,” for example. Around present-day, almost everyone in the world has what is called a ‘grain,’ which records every moment of your life so you can play it back, zoom in, and scrutinize what has happened to you. At first, it seems cool. A man can play back his job interview and see what he did wrong and whether he will get offered the job based on what the interviews said to him at the end. Airport lines move faster because security simply plays back your memories to make sure you aren’t a terrorist and lets you move on. Life is easier, which is the point of technology. Then, things become difficult, and the ethics get muddled. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, because I highly recommend watching this show, but by the end of the episode, a man’s life is ruined because of his grain. Did he take its use too far in an attempt to see things that maybe should’ve stayed hidden? Some would argue that the truth is all that matters and being able to know everything about the world is a privilege technology gives us. But I have to wonder if maybe knowing everything and seeing everything—making people transparent—is a good thing.
Another episode is similar—Season 2, Episode 2 “White Bear”—because it opens with a woman whose memory is completely gone and walks outside of her home to see dozens of people filming her on their phones. Immediately, questions about the morality of filming terrible and scary situations—suicidal people contemplating whether to jump off a bridge, a fight where two people are badly injuring one another, car wrecks where people are killed instantly—come to mind because today, with the ubiquity of smartphones, people always seem to have a gut reaction to film instead of help. I mean, what is that about? One would think our first reaction would be to help, but somewhere along the way our human nature got twisted and we ended up as stone-cold observers.
While this episode takes an interesting turn, I believe at least one of its themes is based on our addiction to technology and the way technology can desensitize us. In fact, the whole series centers around the idea that humans are headed towards becoming so addicted to our social media accounts and cell phones and iPads (if we aren’t already there) that we forget about being human.
In Season 3, there is an episode where people get ‘points’ based on their interactions with other people. If you smile at another person, you get five points. If you get into an altercation, that’s minus ten. If this sounds familiar, it may be because so many people already act this way with their Instagram and Facebook accounts. How often do you post an article without reading it just so people will think you’re cool? Do you make an effort to like and comment on other’s photos just so that they will do the same with yours? I know that I do, sometimes, but I also know that this is fake. It’s all fake, but we act as if it is completely normal.
At the risk of sounding like a Y2K person, warning of the technological apocalypse, I urge you to take a look at your social media accounts and ask yourself if it really reflects who you are. Are you putting on a mask because the whole world is watching, trying to make you transparent? Are you scared people will look back through your feed and see what you really think and use it against you? In any case, I suggest watching Black Mirror on Netflix to see what you think about it. While you’re at it, read The Circle by Dave Eggers. We may be headed to a technological dystopia while we think we are on the road to a utopia, which is more than unsettling. It’s downright scary.
