I have been sucked into the black hole of Netflix lately. With the release of Stranger Things Season 2 (which I watched in a little under two days), I have been on the lookout for anything slightly creepy to keep me entertained. While on this search for entertainment, I clicked on the link to Black Mirror. I noticed that I had a 98% recommendation rating from Netflix, so I hoped I would end up liking the show.

As a fan of short stories and The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror is right up my alley. I accidentally started with the third season, but that did not deter my thoughts on the show as a whole. Black Mirror is a British science fiction anthology written by Charlie Brooker. If you enjoy short stories like, "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell and "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, you may enjoy the dark humor that Black Mirror has laced within each episode.

Each episode is a story that has its own plot and characters solving different problems. Most of these problems are fears that are linked to technology. It shows that while advancements in technology can be beneficial, there are darker sides to it as well. As a person who enjoys technology and heavily relies on it day to day, I have to say that this show definitely broadcasts some of my own fears with virtual reality gaming, social media, and cameras.

*SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASON THREE*

One of my favorite episodes is "Nosedive" in season 3, where Bryce Dallas Howard plays Lacie Pound. A girl who is interested in keeping her social ratings up, and who struggles to make it to the elite club of the 4.5 ratings. When you become part of the elite, the world is open to you.

These ratings reminded me a bit of Tinder and Uber mixed together in a sort of horrific way. With this technology, people are way too involved in your life and the outcomes are ridiculous. This is definitely not a society I would want to take part in. When your score goes lower than a 2.5, you are immediately scene as a social outcast.

When your rating is completely low, it effects not only your social standings, but your financial standings as well. People who do not conform to the society are immediately kept at the bottom of the barrel in a world where it's very difficult to climb back up. It's social oppression in one of the worst ways imaginable.

While these ideas are far-fetched, it is still an interesting thing to think about. What if our lives were controlled by our social ratings? Where would you stand? Are you consistently polite to strangers? Do you lie to your friends to make them feel better? Is your Instagram always up to date with pictures of coffee art and petite pastries? Do any of these things really matter?

Personally, I don't want my social interactions to be tracked. I don't want to constantly have people rating me on how polite and well-groomed I am. This censors the world around us and completely dissolves any authenticity we have left.

To quote my favorite comedian, Bo Burnham, "Social media-it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, 'Here, perform. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason'.

It's horrific. It's performer and audience melded together. What do we want more than to lie in bed at the end of the day and just watch our life as a satisfied audience member? I know little about anything. But what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it." This quote is exactly how I felt after watching the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror. While the end of the episode was satisfying, it still shocked me to see how quickly our society to go from where it's at now, to where it can be in the near future.

If I were in the society portrayed in Nosedive, I would hope that I could stick to my originality and keep a 1.0 rating.