On December 4, 2016, my posting on this blog was titled, "Bleak Mirror." I teach a Legal Studies "Capstone" course at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and I have focused the course on the issues of "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom." I'm giving my students "Extra Credit" if they watch an episode from the Black Mirror series on Netflix (the series that stimulated my "Bleak Mirror" posting last December), and then provide an online comment.
I recommend that Black Mirror series to everyone. Black Mirror definitely makes us think about how "technology" affects both our "privacy" and our "freedom." So does Dave Eggers' novel (now a film) The Circle, about which I have commented before, and which I also recommended last December. That recommendation continues in effect!
All too often, we assume that "progress," and especially "technological" progress, is something that takes us forward, and leads us on to a better future. Anyone who has read my blog postings more than occasionally knows that I am skeptical of this bias in favor of new technology. I am particularly distressed with the Silicon Valley idea that "disruption" is always desirable.
Anyone not familiar with Black Mirror is encouraged to track down this series. There are three seasons, so far, and they are not very long seasons, so if you get hooked it won't take you forever to watch every episode. Netflix has a one month free introduction offer, and you could easily watch them all in that one free month!
Image Credit:
http://www.todaytvseries.com/tv-series/262-black-mirror
Sabrina Uppal
ReplyDeleteLGST 196
Review of Black Mirror “Hated in the Nation”:
This episode of Black Mirror, “Hated in the Nation,” sparks a debate over the effects of ever growing popularity of social media and technology. The episode takes place in England, in a time that seems like the not too distant future. In this episode, scientists have created robotic bees to supplement for the dying bee population. As bee populations are dying, we are all concerned about how this will affect our ecosystem. This fictional episode poses a solution to this problem, by creating robotic bees that behave like natural bees. They even make hives and replicate themselves. This is fine until one day someone figures out how to hack the computer bees and use them to anonymously kill people. The victims who are targeted are determined by social media. The murderer started the trending hashtag, #deathto, and whoever got the most comments with that hashtag at the end of the day was chosen to be murdered. I think this episode was very interesting and relevant to today’s society. Even though it was fictional, and not all of this technology is available today, the issues and solutions raised in this episode are directly relatable to today’s society. With global warming and dying bee populations, do we as a society see technology and possibly robotic bees as a solution we would want if it’s even possible? And more importantly, this episode shows how social media disconnects us from the real world. Everyone was so casually retweeting the #deathto hashtag and saying horrible things about celebrities they have never met, and this happened regularly in our world. These words we type online do have real effects on people, and we should not feel like it okay to say whatever we want online just because we do not have to face these people in person. If you would not be comfortable saying something to someone in person or acting a certain way in the real world, we should not act that way online.
Review of Black Mirror “Nosedive”:
Black Mirror “Nosedive” brings up concepts of social media and rating people, whether those ratings are superficial or deeper. In this episode, people get rated by other people based off of all of their interactions, both in person and online. The higher your rating, the better privileges you are awarded. Our world seems to be heading in this direction, especially with job companies in Europe using peoples’ social media accounts to determine if someone is eligible for a loan or a job. While some people may be in favor of a society similar to this, I would not agree. I feel that social media and interactions similar to this disconnects people and encourages us to have more superficial relationships instead of genuinely connecting with other people. Also, rating people like this and making these ratings worth something makes people lose their sense of self. If a person’s “rating” determined what they were allowed to have access to in the world, people would really care about these ratings. The problem with this is that if people were constantly worried about what others thought of them and what they rated them, people would always feel as if they have to have this positive persona and they are not allowed to have a bad day because then people will rate them lower, and that rating would stick with you. There are pros and cons to this. The pro would be that it would force people to be more conscious of their interactions with everyone around them, including strangers. This constant awareness could cause people to be more kind to one another. The cons would be having to have this fake, superficial persona all the time and therefore not forging meaningful connections with others.
“Nosedive" explores a really interesting, but dark, possibility of our current social media. In this episode, people rated each other throughout their daily social interactions on a one to five “star” scale. These ratings contributed to their social acceptance, and granted new opportunities previously restricted, like being able to rent a better vehicle, or buying a lavish new home. However, if an individual's ratings were unacceptably low, it resulted in temporal incarceration and social isolation. This rating system, at best, can be compared to a credit score on steroids, updated instantly, but controlled by ordinary users who have access to a smart-phone.
ReplyDeleteAs seen through this episode, and through examples of today’s social media, every body and mind has been molded into acceptable, tolerable, or a desirable version of themselves. Hardly anybody expressed their own unpopular opinions, and for those who did, they were outcasted instantly. Although we rate restaurants and movies without question, what would happen it we extend this to people? As previously covered in class, we already have an idea of how a Facebook profile provides a constructed representation of an individual.
Privacy, surveillance, government and power are themes explored in "Hated in the Nation," when the death of an unpopular writer sends detectives to social media to track her killer. Their following investigation links them to more deaths, hashtags, drone-like insects, and a “moral lesson.”
As for government surveillance, this episode expresses how the collection of data is susceptible to being hacked, and used for other purposes, rather than its initial purpose of “national security." But, the collection of data is for the sake and question of “national security,” argue proponents of increased government surveillance. As Edward Snowden has exposed, this government surveillance already takes place, and if the U.S. becomes a target of a cyber-attack, with its many international enemies, this can directly jeopardize public safety. This episode highlights a paradox that questions whether or not increasing national security is “safer.” Instead, the mass collection of personal data has unpredicted “consequences” as it increases public vulnerability to cyber-warfare. All it takes is one sole hacker with psychopathic tendencies to murder an unprecedented amount of people.
In conclusion, with today’s innovations, privacy is rare to come around. The obsession with technological innovation can not continue without morality and the question of “what is right." Black Mirror reflects that obsession with "worst-case scenario” episodes that don’t seem too far into the future, and that serve as a warning for future innovators.
-Jahir Salinas, LGST 196
"Hated in the Nation" -Edith Lopez
ReplyDeleteThis episode of Black Mirror highlighted two extremities of technology whereby the use of the ADI’s can mimic life and thus continue the responsibilities of an animal to the ecosystem but also cause harm when it is in the hands of the wrong person. Further, “Hated in the Nation” encompasses many of the themes that we have learned about in the capstone: privacy, surveillance, and freedom in relation to individuals and the government. This dichotomous relationship between privacy and surveillance creates a double edged sword for the implied right to privacy for individuals and the government’s responsibility to protect its citizens. In my opinion, that is the most difficult issue to balance because citizens want the government to protect them but, in return, they need to give up some of their privacy. However, the gray area is where the government begins to overstep its broad powers. This issue was exemplified in this episode where the government agency, National Crime Agency, set up a deal program with the ADI company. In this deal, the government fully funded the ADI program in exchange for being able to use these drones to track people and potentially use it as a weapon to find government enemies. As a result, this loophole became exploited by a hacker who was able to gain control of the ADIs that resulted in the death of thousands of civilians. While the government tried to use the ADIs to strengthen national security, instead it ended up endangering its own people with a massive terrorist attack.
Social media is a powerful technological platform that joins people together worldwide for political, social, and other informational issues. Although social media has many positive elements, the ability to be anonymous increases national security risks. Technology is a double edged sword that creates powerful and lasting changes in the world but it can also be detrimental by creating caveats–such as anonymity, hacking, and cyber-bullying–for people who misuse it. Therefore, laws help catalyze the power of technology for both individuals and the government.
“Hated In The Nation”
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well made episode that commented upon the social media usage today as well as the negative consequences of technological advancements in general. As social media users, people can hide behind a screen and say whatever they want to without facing any consequences. One doesn’t have to look far to see the extent of cyberbullying. If one looks at the comment section on any youtube video, a couple of the highest liked comments would be a criticism of the uploader or the person in the video. This is very common, especially when videos go viral or someone messes up and it is caught on tape and the whole online community tends to send a react negatively. The episode “Hated In The Nation” aims to address this issue directly by bringing in a criminal that punishes all the people that resort to cyberbullying. One could even view him as a vigilante because when there are no consequences by the law or the society, he takes on the role of a punisher.
Additionally, the episode also comments upon the government surveillance and the issue of privacy. A technology as simple as little robots that transfer pollen could be used by the government for surveillance without the knowledge of the public and they aren’t obligated to tell the public either. This is very similar to National Security Agency’s phone surveillance in United States. The truth about the government surveillance didn’t come out until Edward Snowden’s revelation of government documents, which makes one question as to what other kinds of government surveillance could be going on under the pretext of national security, without the knowledge of the people.
This episode also brings up another threat to security when it comes to privacy and technology-the threat of exploitation. Even if the government uses technology for the safety of the public, it is very vulnerable to hacks from those experienced. This opens up the public’s safety to various unforeseen threats. Overall, this episode makes one question the potential negative consequences to the seemingly harmless advancements to technology.
“Nosedive”
As a social media user that uses websites like instagram where the posts depend on the number of likes, this episode was very relevant to me. In the episode, the woman relies on social media and the ratings by her peers. She goes to great lengths in order to increase her likes and in the end, loses her sanity before realizing the extent of control it had over her. This brings up the unhealthy habit of young people posting on social media websites and spending long periods of time to get the perfect picture, which is further related to body image issues. Looking at other people’s profiles and their “lavish lifestyles” can make one question their own and produce a want to attain similar goals. This creates an unhealthy dynamic where people, especially teenagers can develop low self esteem.
Additionally, the issues brought up in the episode resonated with the concerns in my senior thesis “Do You Control Data or Does Data Control You?” The reliance of housing rental agencies on the level of rating a person has is quite similar to credit scores but also, to the potential usage of metadata in the future. Metadata is data, such as a person’s shopping history or likes on facebook, etc. that is collected and analyzed by data broker companies such as Acxiom. When sold to third parties, this helps the sellers cater to the needs of the consumers in a better manner but it could also be used by insurance companies as a means of choosing members with the lowest risk. For example, unhealthy eating habits could be related to a higher risk of health issues and could be used as a basis for health coverage.
In conclusion, this episode brings attention to the interesting cycle of consumerism where the very act of consumerism (related to social media) could be harmful for consumers (the dependency on social media for self-validation) or be used against them (when being exploited by third parties).
Edith Lopez "Nosedive"
ReplyDeleteSocial media creates a competitive and superficial reality for many people. People living in the real world use social media as another mode of connecting with others but also use it to enhance the adventure, happiness, or excitement in their lives. The episode “Nosedive” showed the cruel reality of living up and depending on other people’s “ratings” to live a good life. The superficiality created by the use of ratings in this society is problematic as it conflicts with the individuality of a person and instead makes them a standard person of society. In this case social media was a weapon of control, where individual such as Lacie, needed good ratings in order to get housing, cars, and flights. This is dangerous as people forget the meaning of life and suppress the importance of individuality. Previously, we read Hannah Arendt’s article on individuality and the need to be unique in order to make a stronger society. However, this episode creates a challenge to being individual, as those who rebel against the status quo become shunned as labeled as a “social maniac.” It is important, for technology to be used as a tool of advancement and not as a tool of manipulation, which in this case we saw how social media controlled individuals from expressing their true feelings.