This essay examines the show Black Mirror as a key example of the effects technology and social media have on society and the possible consequences it could have in the future. I explore episodes included in Black Mirror that specifically relate to the theory of Futurism, the Transhumanism movement and the concept of Singularity and relate them to today’s generation, making connections and analysing why these shows are so effective at disturbing viewers.
Futurism, Transhumanism and Singularity
Humanity has always had ‘future-orientated’ thoughts, particularly prominent in the early 20th century movement of Futurism. Futurism emphasised the dynamism, speed and power of the machine and the vitality, change and restlessness of modern life.
– Franco Berardi “After the future”
– Paul Valery – interesting prediction of information and technology in the future.
– Shows how we have always been occupied by the future
Transhumanism is the belief or theory that humanity can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology. It is a way of thinking about the future based on the idea that humans in their current form do not represent the end of our development, rather a preliminary stage. Transhumanists wish to step away from the blind evolution of biological life to improve and bring themselves to the next stage of life through science and technology, fundamentally becoming wiser, stronger and more peaceful. The body is simply that – a body to manipulate and possibly enhance with prosthesis. Nobody knows what technological possibilities are instore for us in the future as a limit does not exist. Charlie Brooker explores these likelihoods in ‘Black Mirror’, as there is a blurring of lines between our physical and digital realities, not only implicating our morality but also our ethical behavior.
Technology and Society
According to Guo-Ming Chen (2012), new media has brought human interaction and society to a highly interconnected and complex level. With all the new devices and platforms available to us we can now contact someone on the other side of the world in seconds instead of sending a letter that would take weeks to be received, but at what cost? We live shallow and disconnected lives because we have been made numb by years of advertising and mass culture. Social media has lessened the use of verbal conversation and made receiving social gratification a touch away, making simple interactions in life more and more impersonal.
We’re seeing the first generation of ‘digital natives’. As of June 2017, Facebook has a monthly active use of over 2 billion people, breaking down to more than 1.3 billion daily active users overall. The likes of Twitter and Instagram follow closely behind, Twitter having 330 million daily users and Instagram 500 million. These statistics owe a lot of their credibility to ‘Millennials’, the generation following the ‘Baby Boomers’. Millennials are the children born between 1984 and 2005, known for their increased use and knowledge of media, technology and media, particularly social media. Millennials report obsessively checking their social media platforms and in 2010 there was research published in the Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research which claimed that students who decided to quit using social media showed the same withdrawal symptoms as those of a drug addict quitting their substance.
Moral Panic
There has been a common historical pattern of panic and alarm as new technology emerges throughout the years, but is it as bad as it is perceived to be? Ironically, it’s the media creating most of this fear about technology and social media. An interesting argument is that with the rise of social media, it exposes more of our society and its damages. With easier access to articles and reports on the skepticism surrounding social media and technology, it creates a rise in the moral panic and allows that fear to spread more rapidly. Fire was once a new technology, but it was also dangerous and came with the risk of burning or possibly dying. People are afraid of what they don’t fully understand and talks of addiction among children and their smartphones is a huge worry for adults.
A cause for concern is the link of social media to low self-esteem and a sense of isolation. In a study by Kross and others, they found that Facebook use went hand in hand with how dissatisfied people felt with their lives. “These analyses indicated that Facebook use predicts declines in the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel moment to moment and how satisfied they are with their lives.” (Ethan Kross, 2013) Parents have a difficult time protecting their children against the dangers they can face on the Internet (e.g., cyberbullying, pornography, addiction). According to Valcke, 92% of children, compared to 62% of parents, are comfortable using the Internet (Valcke, 2010). This spikes the worry in parents that they need to monitor what their children are doing at all times. The key to avoiding this is to not take away, but limit the use of technology in children and realise its potential for human transformation, as explained in Transhumanism. As John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid said in A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-Gloom Technofuturists,
“Technology and society are constantly forming and reforming new dynamic equilibriums with far-reaching implications. The challenge for futurology (and for all of us) is to see beyond the hype and past the over-simplifications to the full import of these new sociotechnical formations. Social and technological systems do not develop independently; the two evolve together in complex feedback loops, wherein each drives, restrains and accelerates change in the other.” (John Seely Brown, 2001)
Although young people spend a lot of time on their phones, there are a lot of added benefits that outweigh the negatives. Teens find it easier to communication through social media. They have a constant connection to their peers which in turn allows great opportunities to continue with relationships. Social media also allows young people to become content creators, managers and distributers, supporting networking and nourishing creativity.
Black Mirror
Black Mirror is a television anthology series created by Charlie Brooker named for how our screens look when powered off. Each episode stands alone and features suspenseful episodes about techno-paranoia and social media in the future. Although there is already a huge number of futuristic movies and television shows available to us, Black Mirror is different and more hard hitting. This is because it is set in a near future reality, a future that we can imagine ourselves inhabiting. The technologically awry circumstances depicted in each episode are made more terrifying by the relatable setting and characters that aren’t much different from ourselves and people we see every day. Black Mirror wasn’t widely advertised, it grew popular from references and screenshots posted on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr which, considering the nature of the show, is quite fitting. Black Mirror is almost becoming a parallel to everyday life. The creator himself has even stated that episodes are going past satire now and are becoming modeled after life services. This evokes horror not only in the future, but the world people are already living in. In a more positive light, Black Mirror also gives us the power to shift how we think and imagine a future that we could create for ourselves with endless possibilities.
Comparisons of Black Mirror Episodes and Today’s Society
Black Mirror examines the menace of social media and technology and puts it into a relatable context so that people can make comparisons to our use of these things in their own lives and strive to not go down similar paths. A perfect example of social media effecting society today is explored in the episode called ‘Nosedive’, where people live their daily lives receiving social media likes, taken to its logical extreme. Every social media interaction is rated out of five and the main character, Lacy, is striving to reach a higher popularity rating. A social media reputation consultant remarks to Lacy “Strangers like you, so that’s a plus”. The episode is all about digging at our own anxiety of how we’re perceived on social media in our own era. These days, children and teenagers are growing up on the internet where you’re raw and exposed, dictated by how you are perceived on social media platforms. Karlin Lillington of the Irish Times says that we are living in a time of “A constant personal PR, a management of our developing self.” (Karlin Lillington, 2016) This links in with the question of technology making us less human. People only see or choose to share a portion of their lives, most of the time being the happiest parts and therefore influencing people to feel envious of their ‘perfect’ lives. They become focused on ‘static feedback’ that gives momentary gratification – not the physical social interaction humans need to survive.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the episode “Men Against Fire” is a political allegory dealing with a futuristic idea of how we today perceive refugees. The soldiers in this episode have implants in their brains to make them see what they believe are zombie-like “roaches”, but are innocent civilians. “You can’t see them as human” a soldier says, “You’ve got to take them out if humankind is going to carry on in this world.” Similarly, people seem void of empathy and unable to sympathise with asylum seekers in this anti-immigrant age. People share tweets about images and stories that are deemed sad, but they still don’t want these refugees who are deemed a faceless group of criminals in their countries, stealing their jobs and resources.
Another episode. ‘Shut Up and Dance’ is the only episode that does not take place in the future and is something that could very well, and has happened. A teenaged boy named Alex is recorded masturbating through his webcam in the privacy of his own room by a group of hackers. The footage is then used as blackmail to use Alex as a puppet of sorts, performing tasks for the unknown group. The use of unknown hackers is similar of that to the group of trolling hacktivists in our own world who call themselves “Anonymous”. Internet trolls are people who create conflict on social media sites by posting controversial or provoking topics with the intent of receiving an emotional response from other users. These trolling topics range from pranking to harassing and sending violent threats. That raises another issue of social media and dehumanisation – creating a disconnectedness and an increased rift between people on the internet. According to Aisha Gani of The Guardian, one in four teenagers suffered from hate incidents online in 2015, a figure that experts are descbribing as a ‘wake up call.’ (Gani, 2016)
Moral panic and transhumanism go hand in hand in the season four episode ‘Arkangel’, where parental surveillance is taken to a whole new level of extreme, creating a nightmare out of parental controls. ‘Arkangel’ is another episode that is particularly disturbing because of its proximity to today’s world. The story unfolds of a single mother so worried about the harm the world could cause to her daughter she has a micro-chip installed in her daughter’s brain that not only censors what she sees but allows the mother to see what her daughter is seeing and doing at all times. In the early scenes the mother is doing all she can to protect her only child who she clearly loves dearly, but as the episode progresses and her daughter grows older she becomes obsessed and addicted to constantly monitoring her daughter. The episode eventually climaxes to the mother being beaten to death by the daughter whose mental health has been affected by the constant surveillance. What makes this episode so eerie is that with all the activity monitors, tracking buttons and parental controls existing now, the idea of an implant that allows you to track your child doesn’t seem too surreal.
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