Nosedive, and why is it relevant?

If you haven't watched nosedive, be advised that this article contains spoilers. Do watch the episode from "black mirror"; you'd realize many things regarding society's reliance on social media.

"In this world, we're all so caught up in our own heads. It's easy to lose sight of what's real. What matters." - Lacie

Nosedive is an episode on "black mirror" that satirically tackles social media's adverse effects and how it affects the world and the society we live in. Lacie Pound, a rated 4.2 in the dystopian world, where your worth is depicted on the stars people give you. It affects every person's socioeconomic status, making the stars a basis of your importance and relevance in society. In this world, people are often seen as kind and polite but with the sliver of unrealistic and "plastic" kind of interactions to get stars to uplift their status.

Watching the episode made me realize many things, such as how one's opinion will only be significant only if you're loved in the virtual social world. The turning point in this episode is when Lacie tries to climb the social ladder by reconciling with one of her childhood friends named Naomi, even when they had a terrible encounter in the past. This includes Naomi cheating on Lacie with her boyfriend named Greg, which Lacie's brother argued that it's a bad idea to be climbing the social ladder, mostly when you're faking it. Lacie badly needed the ratings so she could avail a discount for the elites on her dream home.

It's human nature to honestly want what we truly desire, and for Lacie, it's the expensive home where she could settle with her one true love, even if it means losing a part of herself to the social madness. It's tough to suppress human desire, especially if you deem it to be achievable in the first place. We tend to focus on what's ahead and not what truly matters.

Fortunately for Lacie, she was picked as Naomi's bridesmaid and was invited to her wedding. This episode notes how some influencers tend to fake drama in their lives, such as using a script to create a scene that captivates the audience. Lacie rehearsed and memorized the speech for Naomi's wedding throughout the episode, even though her brother was denoted as a "sociopath" for being insincere about it. Lacie and her brother argued about this scheme until Lacie rated her brother down because of the encounter.

 Ryan also rated her down, and that's where Lacie's ranking starts to go for a downturn hence the word "Nosedive". Before reaching the airport, she was downrated by a woman whom she collided with and the taxi driver who got annoyed by her by making him wait. Her rank went from 4.2 to 4.1. This depicts that we can't control the mishaps that we encounter in our daily lives, and yet we still get backlashed by society without knowing the context.

The airport scene took things for the worst for Lacie since she argued with the ticketing officer. We humans, in times of desperation, often get mad when things don't go our way, and for Lacie, her façade faded and prompted the security to penalize her by suspending her 1 star for 24 hours and have the double damage effect in this time.

Lacie decided to go for a car rental. Even at the car rental, there's a booth for low and high rated statuses. Lacie made her way to Naomi's wedding, and unfortunately, she rented an electric car that didn't have an adapter, making it impossible to charge to an incompatible charging station. Nobody wants to hitch a ride for Lacie since she is low rated lesser than 3 starts precisely. This shows society's depiction of how we treat those who have been canceled by people on social media even without diving further into the story. Memes, dank videos, fake news are quick to circulate throughout social media platforms and causing a drama that makes it to the headlines.

Eventually, a truck driver gave Lacie a ride, she was hesitant because the old lady truck driver has a rating of less than one. It's revealed that the old lady was once a social media diva who took off her façade since the system was fucked up, resulting in her husband's death. Until then, she stayed true to herself and didn't care about the rating system anymore due to her low rank. This reveals society's flawed ideology, favoring those deemed "relevant" by society instead of those who needed more services.

Further in the story, Lacie hitched a ride pretending to be one of the sci-fi junkies heading for a convention where the wedding is also located. She was revealed when Naomi called her, telling her not to proceed to the wedding since she has a rating of less than 3. Lacie retorted about the past friendship that they had and what about it. Naomi slammed her with words that they were just in it for the ratings, and they didn't really care for their friendship, which is true. Lacie insisted on going on despite Naomi's warnings.

I told you, it's all fake drama and bullshit sometimes.

She was removed from the RV, and fortunately, she found and borrowed an ATV to make her towards the wedding. But in the process, she got all dirty and messy when she got dove into muddy water, even her make-up was destroyed. This signified what really was her character and is the complete opposite of their society's standards.

She invaded the wedding and made her speech about Naomi, the crowd was shocked about this encounter. Everyone rated her down since she used the slur, speaking gibberish, and doing things what society doesn't what you to do against their standards. After, she got taken by security and put in a chamber prison. The chamber signified those who are muted by society, making them motionless and hated for a lifetime. They segregate those who show peculiarity with extreme expectations that they should be able to suppress human nature in the form of encouraging politeness and kindness.

Some left social media; some are banished and canceled; some are into it for the good stuff, some are in it for the status and fame.

TLDR; Social media has adverse effects, and nosedive tackled all of that, especially when we make it a significant part of ourselves, drowning in it like it's some kind of addiction. We lose track of what really matters, and that is the reality that we are living in, and we need to be real about it, or we lose sight of it and get caught up on our own heads in the drama and the irrelevant information that's been fed to us every day.

We are so caught up in our own phones, trying to make a name in an alternate reality where people take a façade to be liked and be "relevant." Whereas we can be relevant by keeping track of what's essential, which is keeping real to ourselves and other people.

Be real.

-          Marcmire