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  • Essay / Review of the episode "Nosedive" of the series Black Mirror

    Are you using your mobile or is your mobile using you? The latter is a fact when screenwriter Charlie Brooker depicts an absurd mobile-dependent society in the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" (Netflix, October 26, 2016), demonstrating just how mobile-obsessed our world has become. ridiculous. The theme of the episode is very present, knowing that only 20 years ago, our society did not hear of the word “smartphone”. In this essay, I will summarize and highlight the main events of the episode as well as give my own thoughts on this expansion of addiction. In Nosedive, society is shaped by a mobile app that resembles today's social media. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay Thanks to this application, everyone can rate each other's daily life and behavior on a scale between 0 and 5, which his turn affects his average. score. The average score must be publicly visible through chips implanted in people's eyes and thus affects your social status as well as your possibilities in life; work, housing, etc. One of the many to adopt this kind of life is Lacie, the main character of the episode with a score of 4.2. Aiming for a 20% discount on a luxury apartment, Lacie needs 4.5. Lacie talks with a consultant who suggests that it would benefit her to interact with and impress "high-quality people" because the positive reviews from these high-scoring people have a greater impact on the average score of a person than others. Lacie follows the consultant's advice; it ignores people with lower scores and attracts the attention of people with higher scores. An old friend (now highly rated) notices Lacie and soon she is asked to be the maid of honor as well as give a speech at this friend's wedding. Which she happily accepts. She knows that this could be a great opportunity to improve her rating, because the audience at the wedding is indeed high quality. Thus, she focuses more on daily actions that improve her social status, rather than on what will improve her well-being and real relationships. Lacie's brother, with whom she lives in the same apartment, points out this filtering habit. Unlike her, he doesn't care about audiences. He misses old Lacie, he says, and the conversations they had before the grade obsession. Lacie disagrees and is ashamed of her brother. The arguments take over and she therefore arrives late at the airport. Her flight is canceled and, with her current rating of 4.18, she can't afford a new seat. Showing signs of frustration, a security guard appears and takes a full score on his average. She is now forced to hitchhike. No one is willing to help Lacie until a 1.4 offers a seat. Hesitantly, Lacie climbs aboard. The driver herself, a former 4.6, gave up obsessing over grades because her dying husband was denied treatment because of his low average. As Lacie goes downstairs, her friend calls her and tells her not to come to the wedding due to her drastically reduced score. Plus, she would miss the rehearsal dinner. Upset, she nevertheless arrives late. All attention is on her as she grabs the microphone, a knife and begins her speech. His intimidating manner causes the crowd to drop their score to an all-time low. She is then arrested and put in a cell. The scoring system devices are removed from her body and she begins to argue with her cellmate. Even/