black mirror in real life
The first episode in season 3 of black mirror — nosedive, takes us on experience of how social capital influences the story of an insecure office worker go through the process of gaining ‘likes’ to become a social elite in order to be invited to her elite friend’s wedding.
This episode was a stark reminder that the values of our society and culture are the forces that drive behavior of people, technology is just what enables it. Social hierarchy has been an essential to our civilization and the way institutions are organized and operate. However, with the advancement of social media, it has become a very apparent and unavoidable aspect of society.
In the black mirror episode, we see that the entire world is on a system of ratings. A 5 star ratings means you are a social elite, while a 1 star rating is being at the bottom of society — essentially these ratings equal the social capital one has. These ratings are not only visible to everyone else all the time, but everyone else can rate each other making it a self-sustaining system of sorts. As the episode progresses, we begin to notice that these ratings not only affect the way strangers (or even friends) perceive you, but it also has very real impact on the quality of life. For example, there is a special line at the airport for 4.5 stars and above — for those who are considered social elites. Moreover, there are entire businesses that are formed to help people boost their ratings (just like how some companies help individuals boost their credit score).
The most interesting thing about this concept is that it is almost possible today. And in some industries and countries it is a common practice. For companies like Uber and Grubhub, users are able to rate their drivers for their service, and this is reflected on their profile. While this is very explicit, there are widely used platforms like Instagram and Twitter that have a quantifiable rating in the follower count and number of likes. This is social capital in the day and age of social media.
