The popular Black Mirror episode, “Nose Dive,” portrays a futuristic world dominated by a social credit system of stars ratings. After virtually every interaction, citizens pull out their mobile devices and rate the other person from 1-5 stars, and are clearly able to see each others’ cumulative star ratings. These ratings determine not only their social reputation, but a host of other tangible activities, such as renting a car or purchasing an airline ticket. While this episode portrays a dystopian world and does not directly mirror our own, it is not far off from the truth.
Some aspects of “Nose Dive” already exist, just in different forms. When Lacie is trying to get the last seat on a flight to Naomi’s wedding, but the seat is reserved for those with higher ratings. This is extremely similar to current airline rewards programs, except the currency is monetary, and not social. Lacie’s visit to the coffee shop is essentially identical to what I see at Creighton’s Starbucks and other stores. Everyone is waiting to receive their drink, eyes glued to their phones. When Lacie gets her coffee and cookie, she makes sure to carefully place them and take an aesthetic picture to post to her account for others to comment and critique. I couldn’t possibly count the amount of times I have seen these exact interactions play out before me at every coffee shop I have been to. It makes me shutter to realize the effect social media and financially-based rewards systems have on our everyday society.
The overall tones of the social credit system in “Nose Dive” closely mirror our modern digital society, just with lesser repercussions (for now). On social media, we often do not share our true emotions, or only share our best. Lacie posts cute pictures of coffee, but doesn’t share her tumultuous relationship with her brother. A Creighton student might post a cute picture of her and her friends out at a party, but not comment on her struggles with depression. The same is true about social media’s judgmental power. When Lacie has a meltdown at the airport, those surrounding her give her poor ratings en masse, hurting her social reputation for one mistake. Often times social media may judge someone disproportionately for a small misstep or a simple misunderstanding. Social media has reduced our ability to both forgive and forget.
Even more disturbingly parallel to “Nose Dive” is the emergence of China’s Sesame credit scoring. Currently, it seems that it has a positive effect. Those punished include illegal airport trespassers and plastic surgery operations. For now, at least, the system seems to focus more on punishing criminal offenders and rewarding responsible citizens, but many academics and researchers see the potential for China’s authoritarian government to exploit the credit system as a way to exert more control over its 1.3 billion citizens. It is a disturbing sign of how digital media can be used as a tool of control and repression rather than expression. It goes to show how lucky we are in the United States to be able to use social media as more of an expressive platform rather than one of accountability. That being said, we have never been more under the eye of others than we are today, where everyone has a smartphone and everyone is a citizen journalist.
Media in our World 