Black Mirror’s ‘Nosedive’: Satire Done Right
As Western society becomes steadily technology based, the social media aspect of the digital age is starting to have a large, sometimes harmful, impact on the mental health of millions. This is the problem addressed in “Nosedive”, a popular episode of the British anthology series Black Mirror.
The episode takes place in a dystopian society where all human interaction can be given a rating by the people involved, contributing to a composite ranking that determines a citizen's ability to buy certain houses, enter their workplace, or even stay out of jail. The implementation of the system expectedly leads to a surface level utopian society, in which people actively attempt to be nicer than everyone else in an effort to raise their rating. The concept is a clear criticism of a modern day hyperfixation on likes, retweets, and reviews that come with a social media dominated culture, and it does so through social satire - by showing viewers a country based solely off a system comparable to Uber driver ratings, the creators of the episode hope to convey the absurdity and pressure that comes with having to maintain perfect composure at all times. “Nosedive” poses an important question: if we were forced to constantly act as perfect as we project ourselves to be on social media, what would that do to our mental health?
The focus of the episode is on a girl named Lacie, who has a good - but not great - 4.2. Lacie needs a higher rating in order to be able to buy her house of choice, so when the perfect opportunity presents itself - being the maid of honor at the wedding of her old social media star friend from middle school - she does whatever it takes to follow through. Unfortunately, her small mishaps on the way to the wedding slowly add up, and soon the audience watches as Lacie’s rank drops to a dangerous low.
Lacie’s slow but climatic breakdown as the episode progresses unravels the true pressure she carries with her throughout her day as a result of the weight of being forced to cater to everyone’s needs in fear that one day she may lose her job or home if anything goes awry.
As viewers see the horrifying effects of the rating system on a relatively relatable protagonist, interesting parallels can be drawn between the dystopian society in “Nosedive” and the very real one that we experience every day. Although employment and housing isn’t determined by Instagram likes or Twitter retweets, the toxic relationship between shallow validation on the internet and self worth is clearly reflected in modern day America.