This week, we had the midterm on Monday and then watched the episode of Black Mirror on Wednesday. This episode was kind of frightening to watch, but also seemed creepily realistic. The episode showed people living life’s that all had the main goal (for most people) to be well-liked and have a high social score. This is relatable to the real world and how we use apps like Instagram.
Many people do things “for the insta”. I used to even sometimes go to certain places and do certain things so I could take a picture for my Instagram. An example is going to a certain coffee shop, food place, or landmark that’s aesthetically pleasing to get that one picture. I don’t do this anymore because I felt like I wasn’t living my real life, but many many people still do this.
In class, we also discussed how China is looking to start a similar social system that would have similar restrictions on what people can do based on their social ranking. This is concerning for me because it was evident in the episode that it is not a healthy way of living.
This episode relates to chapter 6 because chapter 6 was about the technological conditions of the media industries. The chapter discusses technological utopianism and dystopianism, two extreme ideas that have to do with technological advancements and the effects they could have on a society. Technology can influence a society immensely, and that is clear when we look into how humans are now, and how they were hundreds of years ago. We are less social, crave more attention from social media apps, and similarly to the black mirror episode, live our lives to impress those around us.
entertainment media 