Nosedive: The Dehumanization Of The Future In Black Mirror

Black Mirror is one of the jewels of television that, instead of hypnotizing us and making us forget the world around us, motivates us to be more critical of our everyday reality. It’s not a regular series, there’s no connection between the episodes, there’s no reason to see it in order, nor does it force us to do a marathon of hours. She is sometimes difficult to digest. Today we bring you an episode from the third season, entitled Nosedive.

This is a chapter that, while futuristic, reminds us enormously of the world we live in today. This is no different in Black Mirror , because as the creator himself, Charlie Brooker, has indicated on more than one occasion, his inspiration comes not from fantasy, but from our own contemporaneity.

Nosedive  is very reminiscent of the invasion of social networks we live in today and makes us aware of how dangerous and unreal they can be.

Starring Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of Lacie, Nosedive presents us with a perfect world, where there is no gray and everything is pastel shades, from clothes to houses and furniture. Everything is wonderful and idyllic in this not-too-distant future; however, just like on social media, this world hides a very bitter face.

Lacie is the protagonist of this story, of this ecosystem in which people are measured by their popularity in an app very similar to Instagram, where 0 is the lowest score and 5 is the maximum. Thanks to the ratings of others and the network of contacts, you can get a better job, buy an apartment and get a large number of benefits. What would happen if we took what we see on Instagram totally seriously? What would happen if we started to rank people by their popularity on a social network?

Black Mirror , once again, reminds us of the darkest face of our world. It puts before our eyes a truth that we know, but that we seem to ignore. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, you better not read on, because I’m forced to give spoilers to address the most important issues it addresses.

Nosedive, behind perfection

Every day we consult Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… everyone has their preferences, but it is indisputable that social networks have become, in a short time, part of our lives. They are the image we want to give to the world, what we would like to be but are not; the best face of our daily life.

In Black Mirror , the star app serves to qualify people, much like Instagram likes, with the difference that these points are social points, they work beyond networks and determine their life in reality.

Lacie is a popular young woman, although not from the elite, she has a good job, but her life could be much better. She is completely addicted to the social network and constantly tries to capture the attention of an old childhood friend, Naomi, a beautiful young woman with a perfect life who is about to get married.

Votes can be public or anonymous and the repercussions of having a poor rating can be devastating. For this reason, all inhabitants of this world try to behave according to the rules, are kind and pretend to be “perfect”.

Let’s think for a moment about Instagram, the accounts we follow, the most popular accounts… they’re all filled with false happiness, painfully perfect beauty ; what would happen if we transferred this to real life? We can test a multitude of filters to look good on a photo, we can measure everything we publish, but we can’t please everyone in our daily lives.

Nosedive means moving the codes of our social networks to the real world, where not only would we act falsely trying to please and showing our best face, but  these likes we receive on Instagram or Facebook would serve to determine our social position.

In Black Mirror , everyone acts correctly with each other, with a cordiality that bothers because, deep down, we know it’s not real, it’s pure selfishness. They don’t try to please or help, but they try to improve their own image.

Naomi proposes to Lacie to be her bridesmaid at the wedding, Lacie accepts without hesitation, despite her brother’s insistence, who remembers that Naomi has done her a lot of harm in the past. Lacie needs to go to this wedding because it will be full of people with very high scores, and she can get the 4.5 she needs to be able to finance the apartment she’s interested in.

Naomi, for her part, doesn’t invite Lacie because she’s a good friend or to share childhood memories, but does so because she thinks it might be interesting to bring a friend from school with a 4.2. Nobody really acts, nobody thinks about the other, there is only the “I” and the image I project of my “I”.

ceasing to be slaves

This extreme concern with the image, with our projection to the world, reminds us a lot of our reality. Nosedive is not improbable and certainly reminds us of situations we have experienced ourselves.

We all want to share images of a delicious meal, a wonderful evening with friends, an unforgettable trip, a simple coffee on a terrace… we measure absolutely everything we publish, we think about who will see and what others will think.

We live in a world that every day is a little less human and more technological, but luckily we still keep in touch, the daily contact with our colleagues and friends, and we have a little space where we can be ourselves.

We all know what we want to be, some even have someone to imitate. But is it really what we want? Throughout the episode, we observe how Lacie’s personality is extremely conditioned, she doesn’t choose her food, she eats what is socially good; she doesn’t like the biscuit that comes with the coffee, but pretends she does. This conditioning, this new way of interacting and extreme deceit makes the characters not able to deal with a conflict, to say what they think, for fear of reducing their score.

Black Mirror masterfully immerses us in a contemporary masquerade ball, filters in real life, where everything is pastel, everything is apparently perfect, but no one is really happy. Nobody can be that happy, nobody can be happy forever and nobody can love everybody.

This extreme Instagram, along with the wedding invitation, will make Lacie become obsessed with popularity, something that will be truncated by a series of unforeseen events that will lead Lacie to be herself, to drop the mask, to become human.

It is human to have feelings, not to think like the other, it is human to express anger. But in this perfect world, the human has no place. Lacie’s fall is nothing more than a release; she ends up in prison but is free.

It’s not the walls that oppress her, it’s society, and once outside, she can finally scream, she can be herself. The final scene in which Lacie “lost her mind” when she realizes she no longer has her cell phone and goes into a screaming loop with her fellow prisoner is a liberating, hopeful scene. There is no prison greater than ourselves, there is no slavery greater than a dehumanized world.