“Black Mirror” provokes thought on the technological age

Black Mirror provokes thought on the technological age

Abby Neal, Web Editor-In-Chief

A social media website that is so omniscient that your online presence can determine the type of job or house you get. A compound where young adults must spend years of their lives on stationary bicycles to power the rest of the world. A service that allows one to speak with deceased loved ones, using online records to reconstruct entire personalities.

These are just three worlds explored in the Netflix show “Black Mirror,” a serialized show centered on the ominous side to the technological luxuries of the modern age.

“Black Mirror” satirizes our digital age while avoiding the pitfalls of other similar forms of media, such as belittling the millennial generation into a group of shallow individuals with no depth or intelligence. Instead, each episode following a self-contained storyline explores a different world of technological innovation, poking fun at and criticizing the way all humans interact with technology, and providing warning signs for a bleak future to come.

Each episode of “Black Mirror” is set in a different universe predicting a specific mutation of modern technology. Because of this, each episode is unique in its method and subject of critique, and most are done exceptionally well.

So far, my favorite worlds include the ones of “White Bear,” “Nosedive” and “San Junipero.” Also included in my list of favorites is “Men Against Fire,” which follows a soldier fighting an elusive enemy, but then makes a shocking realization about the way he views the people he is fighting. This episode had haunting similarities to our current global structure and has continued to make me think about the ethics and morality of warfare. Beyond these outstanding examples, all the worlds featured are incredibly dark, and all made me think about the world I live in and how I interact with technology and the structures of the world around me.

The dark tones are consistent throughout all episodes. Most are bleak, depicting characters constantly struggling with the ways technology has shaped their lives. This darkness, however, makes viewers really think about how our world is going and how we fit into it.

The warning of “Black Mirror” is also enhanced by the way it mirrors the real world. Satire (and “Black Mirror” is, ultimately, satire) is most effective when it’s almost real life, and “Black Mirror” is so realistic it’s scary. For example, the campaign run by a cartoon character in “The Waldo Moment” is eerily similar to the rhetoric and campaign strategies that reared their ugly heads in 2016.

“Black Mirror” stands out in the crowd of critiques of our technological age by avoiding talking down to the millennial generation and harkening to “the good ol’ days” where conversation was only face-to-face interactions. Instead, it’s contemplative and diverse, focusing on the effects technology has on society from a broad series of perspectives without ever sounding preachy.

While it does include explicit material, “Black Mirror” is a thought-provoking show that makes viewers reconsider the way they interact with technology.