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DISCLAIMER: I obviously do not own Black Mirror! It belongs to Netflix and the show’s creator. Also, this post contains spoilers for S1E3 (“Nosedive”).
Black Mirror is a TV series on Netflix that looks at a near-future world (or near-future worlds?) where people use technology to their advantage, bringing out the worst in them. None of the episodes are connected; each episode is standalone and explores the ways people misuse different technology concepts to their advantage. These episodes, in turn, are satirizing the savage side of humanity in an extremely brutal way (in other words, juvenalian satire). In this post, we are going to focus on an episode from Season 3, “Nosedive”, and how it analyzes our concern for our “worth” on social media.
“Nosedive” explores a world where every aspect of people’s lives are dictated by their social media score. The score uses a five-star rating system, with zero stars obviously being the worst and five stars being the best. This system further expands with each star on a decimal scale, only used for a person’s overall score: 0.0 to 0.9, 1.0 to 1.9, and so on. This score is earned through people rating them one-five stars on a social media app (almost like rating a restaurant on Yelp).
The popular and influential ones are in the high 4s (think 4.5 and up). The well-liked but not as popular are around in the low 4s and high 3s. The unpopular and hated are around in the low 3s and high 2s.
The cut-off for the “good” scores is around where the “well-liked, but not as popular” camp is. If one is below this cut-off, they are not only shunned and ostracized by their peers, but also suffer other various consequences. This includes being unable to live in nice homes, rent decent cars, travel efficiently, gain access to certain areas, hold certain jobs (or any jobs at all), and the like.
This world is shown through a woman – rated at 4.2 – desperate to increase her rating. She desires to move into an elite community meant for people rated 4.5 and up, away from her brother rated in the 3-star range. Her big chance comes when an old friend – rated in the high 4s – invites her to her lavish wedding. Trouble arises when she is on her way to the wedding the night before, when her score unexpectedly falls to a 4.1. Because of this, she is now unable to fly to the wedding. This makes her cause a scene in the airport, dramatically dropping her score.
Things fall into a downward spiral from there; the journey becomes longer and the old friend snaps at her now-low score and tells her not to come. She crashes the wedding anyway and she gets arrested (for trespassing into the wedding venue – especially with her low score – and for criticizing her old “friend” for being fake and superficial).
“Nosedive” uses hyperbole to call out how concerned we are with social media, mainly about how many followers we have. The low 3s and below in “Nosedive” are equivalent to having a few hundred followers or less on Instagram or Twitter. The high 3s and low 4s are roughly around a couple hundred to a thousand followers. The high 4s are basically your internet stars and celebrities with thousands or even millions of followers. Having a certain rating to do things like fly on a plane or get a job represents our “sense of worth” that we get based on how many followers we have. We feel worthless if we have around a few hundred followers, and feel like something if we reach – let’s say – around 1k or more. We want to feel loved, we want to feel important, and we want to get attention; social media is the best way to satisfy these wants.
Follower count shouldn’t matter in reality, though. It seems pretentious and pointless, especially if we have to be fake to increase it. Yet people care so much anyway, to the point where you are chastised to some degree. In real life, one may not have to follow Jim Crow-esque laws or get arrested for having 200 followers, but one’s follower count definitely shows what others think they’re worth, and that’s not okay.
Black Mirror S3E1 (“Nosedive”)
It’s LIT(2000) 