Nosedive

This episode stresses me out. Thinking about living in a world we’re literally everything is public and everything is about ratings makes me anxious. Even in present day we are able to shape the version of ourselves that we present on social media and even sometimes that’s stress inducing. How could anyone be happy in a society where they’re constantly striving to get to a 4.5 rating? That’s got to have horrible effects on ones self esteem. I think Ryan’s rating of 3.75 seems to allow him the ability to live an actual life not so focused on how other feel about him. In the long run he ended up much happier than his sister. 

People SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Now that title isn't very yogic of me!

To remedy my absence from Blogger of late, I sat down for "Nosedive" with my iPhone Notes in hand, determined to take note of the important themes of the utopia and submit them for discussion.

But here is a sample of my notes:

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"ppl suck
Lacie is like 'no I have to get there it's my best friends wedding' instead of just being a nice person
'I am so sorry about that' flight lady too

Cat in the hat did cheesy pastel world better

Imagine that being high strung all the time

People running back into their cars when she needs help (me doing flyers stuff)"

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And so on.

This weekend I went door to door in my neighborhood passing out informational flyers for New Market's upcoming farmer's market, and though I had a couple nice interactions with people, the ones that stuck out were a frowning guy waving me away from his door as I approached, smiling, and another man with wary, staring family gathered about him aggressively saying "y'know, there's a sign down there that says no so-lic-it-ting," and the like.... This episode just compounded with that and made me think "God, people SUCK!"

That's the essence of my reflection, everybody. I don't really believe that people suck, or maybe I just like to say that. Maybe that's the point of this episode? To make viewers recoil at our world? To be reactive rather than proactive? "Nosedive" doesn't give much encouragement to actively work to remedy its uncomfortable echoes in our world...

Now for a fun gif of the incomparable Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat expressing how this episode made me feel towards people:

Pastel Nightmare

I thought this episode of Black Mirror was interesting, and kinda comments on our own social media influenced society today, but I also thought it was really unfair that having a high rating means better perks. Or, rather, that having a low rating means you can't do a lot of things. Money seems absolutely worthless in this society, since having close to five stars means you can pretty much get whatever you want.
I wonder, though, at what point in someone's life is this system truly implemented? I don't think they could force this type of thing on children, and it certainly didn't seem to matter to Naomi who anyone was before she became who she is now. The whole thing sort of reminded me of having good or bad credit score, except way more extreme.
This system works well if its meant for everyone to be overly fake nice to everybody they meet and live fake lives in order to get better perks, but if it was created in order to put the best people, or the kindest and most charitable people on top, then it would have definitely failed from the beginning. Of course, there's no real way of telling who is fake and who's not in this world, and the fact that you have to look through everyone's posts and stuff right in front of them, with them knowing, just seems really awkward and stressful.

No Privacy

While watching "Nosedive," I couldn't help but have this song spinning in my brain. The lines "I always feel like somebody's watching me / And I have no privacy" and "I don't know anymore / are the neighbors watching me?" just fit perfectly with this world where no one can escape the perpetual cycle of increasing or decreasing online and offline status. Everyone, from your coworkers to a stranger passing you by on the highway, has the power to watch you and decide how lush or poor your life may be. Laci slowly devolves into manic obsessiveness over her stars not only for 'social fame' but housing and reputation and general security. Considering that a person can merely look at you and see your rating, the threat of being watched is enough to incite paranoia and a constant state of 'acting,' which is what Rockwell's song portrays and/or frets over.

Of course, other stalker/paranoia heavy songs that also popped into my head were "Private Eyes" and "Every Step You Take," but I stuck with "Somebody's Watching Me" because its almost helpless, manic-yet-calm assertion of prying, judging eyes seems to parallel and reflect the 'Utopia' in "Nosedive."


Here's the lyric video if the official music video isn't to our tastes:

The Currency of Social Media

With the episode of Black Mirror, I think it’s interesting that this is a current hot topic for The New York Times.

Anna Sorokin came to the United States from Germany under the pseudonym Anna Delvey and was recently found guilty for swindling New York’s elite socialites convincing them she was a European heiress. Friends paid for vacations, rent, and food (on one vacation she stuck a Vanity Fairwriter with a $62,000 check). This was all supported on credibility through her heavily curated Instagram alone, where Delvey started with little to no resources and resorted to falsifying checks and over drafting bank accounts before she was almost charged with second-degree grand larceny for trying to obtain a 22-million-dollar loan in an attempt to open a SoHo art gallery/night club. Even more strange, in my course of reading the story, I found that Sorokin is still supported by anonymous benefactors who lend her high fashion runway looks for her court dates and send a personal stylist to her cell in Rikers Island before her court appearances. These looks have evolved into an even more interesting Instagram account (@annadelveycourtlooks) where her fashions have been documented. The case has even started a brand of t-shirts emblazoned with phrases like, “Free Anna” and “My other shirt will wire you $30,000”; these nearly sold out on their first run throughs. Sorokin was found guilty for lifting $200k from many businesses, but has somehow concocted enough traction in her status to become a finessing icon. Yeah, I said it.

With something so current happening in the news I think it’s hard to forget that credibility on social media will take you very far in life if you play your cards right, just like the circumstances of “Nosedive”.

PS Shout out to the Uber rating system, where I won’t get in a driver’s car unless they’re over a 4.25 rating if they have more than 500 rides. Stay safe!

(Sorokin in Morocco as "Anna Delvey", from the article written by the Vanity Fair writer she swindled)

(from: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan))

(from @annadelveycourtlooks)

Here is the NYT article if you're interested: (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/nyregion/anna-delvey-sorokin-verdict.html)

Still Relevant?

So I really liked this episode of Black Mirror, despite the fact that it looks like actual Hell to me - or maybe because it looks like Hell, and that makes it even more satisfying when Lacie actually realizes that the best way to win in her world is to not play the game. That being said, I have a question: do you all think this episode is still relevant? Since I got to college, I’ve made a lot of friends, and all the ones I’ve been closest with are the type of people who genuinely care for each other enough to accept each other’s flaws instead of either ignoring them or beating each other up about them. Since these are the people I surround myself with, I don’t really end up interacting a lot with “fake” people who have the kind of toxic friendships that are being addressed in Nosedive. Do people actually still behave like this, or do you think we’re finally starting to move past the point where it’s a problem?

Susan's Exit from the Credit System

"You don't know me so you're not really sorry. You're just mainly awkward cos I have sprung some cancer talk at you. Anyway, I five-starred every doctor, every nurse, every high-four consultant that we had. Ding. Ding. Ding. Thank you so much. The cancer didn't give a shit. It just kept growing. A couple of months in, we heard about this experimental treatment. It was very expensive. It was very exclusive. I did everything I could to get him a spot there. Tom was a 4. 3. They gave his bed to a 4. 4. So when he died I thought, fuck it. I started saying what I wanted, when I wanted. Just drop it out there. People don't always like that. It is incredible how fast you slip off the ladder when you start doing that. It turned out a lot of my friends didn't care for honesty. Treated me like I had taken a shit at their breakfast table. But, Jesus Christ, it felt good. Shedding those fuckers. It was like taking off tight shoes. Maybe you should try it?" - Susan, "Nosedive."

As awful as the consequences appear to be for foregoing the system of social credit in "Nosedive," I can't help but to feel relief to the knowledge that there are people who exist comfortably outside of that circle of society. When Susan suggest to Lacie to try being herself, she does so with the experience of both being at the tops and bottoms of the social ladder. The greater wisdom to Susan's advice is the option to opt-out of this system, something which seems feasible at only the cost of social isolation, which isn't nearly as bad as the opt-out cost of other utopias that we've looked at.