Nosedive: Social Media's Dystopian Future

Social media was originally a form of communication which presented your life to friends and family. However, people soon started to show their life publicly to strangers. People were being judged by others through a rating system – a system where viewers judge content based on likeability and interests. Science fiction is a genre that displays the use of innovations in a good or bad manner by showing possible futures with certain technological advancements. “Nosedive,” an episode from the Netflix TV series Black Mirror, depicts a possible dark future where society’s lifestyle revolves around social media. In this alternate world, social media integrates a rating system which assigns a person’s worth. In “Nosedive”, social media’s placement
Science fiction helps society be aware of what we are creating so that we can consider the risks to our way of life. Our current society might not integrate social media as the core of our societal functions as seen in “Nosedive”, but possibilities of a similar future could still occur . In Jon Turney’s article, “Imagining Technology”, he describes science fiction as “life is enabled or constrained by technology in ways we have not seen in our world” (Turney). He explains science fiction provides a possible glimpse of the future where various forms of technological advancement exist. Social media could expand their influences on society’s lifestyle altering the structure of society. Thus, the audience needs to gain an understanding of consequences for how the technology could impact society. For this reason, Robert Sawyer, a science fiction writer, in his essay, “The Purpose of Science Fiction”, states science fiction suggests all possible futures, but with the intention “that society can make informed decisions about where we want to go” (Sawyer). Sawyer expresses that science fiction creates the understanding for people of what future could occur from our use of
For example in the myth of Icarus, Icarus was given wax wings by his father, Daedalus, who warned him of neither to fly too high or low to prevent the wings from breaking during their escape. In spite of the warning, Icarus flew too high beyond the wings’ limit which led to his demise. The myth sends caution to not push past the technology’s limit or consequences will befall the user. Likewise, modern society has made progress in innovations such as social media on computers from 1990’s to mobile phones today, which provides a more open access Even so, social media can only take us so far with its abilities; however, going beyond the scope of its abilities such as the assimilation of social media’s rating system as central structure that force people to restrain their own emotions in exchange better ratings is a possible future. “Nosedive” illustrates how technology like social media could have such powerful impact on the society’s way of life which differs from our reality. Caution is a necessity for avoidance of a dystopian society as our current society must tread carefully in the future use with technology to prevent our