In this chapter of Black Mirror, a future of social ranking and intense self awareness in portrayed. The story is centered around Lacey, a typical female who is obsessed with the ranking system that has taken over society as she knows it. In this future, every single interaction anybody has with anyone is rating out of 5 stars, and that rating averages in with the overall rating of the person as a whole. In this world, everybody is wearing contacts that when you look at anybody around you, it states their rating. It is so regular in this society to behave as best as you can in order to get the best rating from people. If you piss people off or are rude to them, you will get a bad rating and therefore lower your overall rating. This world, according to Sophie Gilbert from The Atlantic, is a “pastel-colored nightmare of aggressive cheeriness, as citizens attempt to out-nice each other and bump up their ratings” [1]. The people with the higher ratings also have the biggest influence on other people; for instance, if somebody with a 4.8 rating gives you 5 stars, your average rating would go up higher than if somebody with a 4.0 rating gave you the same 5 stars.
In this society as well, having a higher rating means that you get the perks that the world has to offer. For example, Lacey is trying to rent a new apartment to move away from her brother, who has a low 3.2 rating. In order to receive a 20% discount on the apartment, which is the only way she’d be able to afford it, she must be a 4.5 rating or higher, and she was currently only at a 4.2. Therefore, Lacey began making herself crazy in order to receive higher ratings from everybody in order to receive benefits for herself. The entire society is completely encapsulated with themselves and the self-awareness of every interaction, and all relationships and interactions are never real and meaningful, they all are only to boost one’s own rating.
As crazy and insane as this society seems, our society is not that far off from this type of mentality. Yes this is very exaggerated and we aren’t “rating” each other to each other’s faces after every interaction, we are always obsessed with how others view us and how it affects our reputation. Instead of ratings, this can be viewed in the amount of followers or likes one has. If somebody has more followers or likes than somebody else, they can be viewed as better or more popular and better off. So many people have the mentality of getting and having the best post in order to receive the most praise and feedback from followers, that real interaction and enjoyment on what’s happening in the moment is slim to none.
A social ranking system is essentially what is happening in this chapter. Everybody is ranked based on their lifestyles, choices and interaction and it therefore has an impact and effect on their daily lives. Based on what their rank is, other people can immediately make inferences about the type of person they are and what they are capable of doing. According to Business Insider, China, by the year 2020, will be implementing a “social credit system” where they will “rank all its citizens based on their ‘social credit'” [2]. With this, people will either be rewarded or punished according to their scores, which is very similar to the world we saw in Nosedive. Also, a person’s “social scores can move up and down according to their behavior” [2].
I personally believe that with the implementation of this social ranking system, it will make almost all interpersonal relations fake and indecent. Nobody will ever speak the way they truly feel about any situation in fear of getting a lower social rank, therefore, losing out on certain benefits and privileges. The entire concept of free speech will be obsolete because no one will ever want to speak out of turn. This is a step toward making humankind into robots; having no personal stance on anything and being afraid to be individuals and different.
Works Cited
- Gilbert, Sophie. “Black Mirror’s ‘Nosedive’ Skewers Social Media.” The Atlantic. October 21, 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/black-mirror-nosedive-review-season-three-netflix/504668/.
- Ma, Alexandra. “China Has Started Ranking Citizens with a Creepy ‘social Credit’ System — Here’s What You Can Do Wrong, and the Embarrassing, Demeaning Ways They Can Punish You.” Business Insider. October 29, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.es/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4?r=US&IR=T.
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