BLACK MIRROR : NOSEDIVE

TOPIC : BEAUTY
OPTION TOPIC; SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Hey guys! It's been a while since I last updated. I hope you didn't miss me too much. :) Sorry for the late update, I got caught up in a few things last week and I was busy with a lot of things. Mainly, assignments and work piling up. I can't believe it's already Friday! *sigh*.Somehow, I wish the days were longer so I can finish more stuff but...... that's not possible is it?

We live in a world today where image is everything. Literally, everything. Who can we blame? Of course we want to present our best selves to the world. Nobody wants to see someone with a crusty face and dark circles with bad breath singing good morning on Instagram. Eerk, sounds familiar. (I swear I don't do that on Instagram)... or do I.........?

Back to the point. Okay so that's the divine truth isn't it? Nobody and I mean NOBODY wants to show their ugly side to the world! Of course we want the world to admire us, to see us in a light that is shining and bright and beautiful. I'm sure most of us don't have the malicious intention of hurting other people when we present our best selves to the world, like making other people envious or jealous. It's just our nature to want the love. But sometimes... is the love we're getting... genuine? Does it come from a place of "I'm so happy for you!" or... "Ugh, this person again"

Thankfully, this world has not become so cynical that we can rate other people, especially our loved ones, our friends and our family, between a 1-10. In my nightmares, the scale starts at a 0. But my point is, we haven't gotten to the stage where we would allow technology to define us from a scale of 1-10.  We would let technology define how many likes we have but not yet to the point of how MUCH they like us. I'm not a magician, and I can't predict the future, but based on the track we're heading, it seems like this train is going to that place where we can rate other people from a 1-10. I'm sure it's already happening in some applications, but not in major ones where our friends and family are at, like Instagram. Slowly but surely, we will move into that world..... and that scares me. A world where my closest people can tell me if I'm a 1 or a 7 or an 8.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the TV series, Black Mirror.  Each episode is about where technology is taking us... and I'd like to share a very interesting episode with you, as from the title of the blogpost, the episode is called "NOSEDIVE".

I'll recap it shortly although it's a very long episode with a lot of hidden messages. Basically, in that episode, we live in a world where we are able to rate anyone. Through our special lenses, we can now see other peoples' ratings when we meet them eye to eye, and rate them from a 1-5. Just as I told you, I'm not a magician and I can't predict the future... but doesn't this sound familiar? That's right. Remember that Grabcar you took. What did they ask you to do before closing the app? RATE IT! One day instead of rating services, we will rate people.

Our obsession with perfection and beauty is simply startling. In this episode of Black Mirror, it is observed that the picture perfect lives these people portray leads to a higher rating.  Technology has become so prevalent in our lives, you cannot say it's impossible that we might live in world of such narcissism and obsession one day.

When someone posts a beautiful picture of their coffee, they might not even like it! As long as it's beautiful, and aesthetically pleasing, it doesn't matter how good the coffee tastes. It matters how the coffee looks.

Scarily, in social applications like Instagram, we often observe this trend where people would take a beautiful picture of their food or drink, just to garner likes. But the question of whether they actually enjoyed it remains.... a mystery.

So you guys might be questioning, so how does this all relate to beauty?

It relates to beauty of every aspect of our lives. Not only in the physical sense of our beauty, but our every day lives.  In the virtual world, it's easy to "fake it till you make it". Fake everything that you have, your physical appearance or your car or even your own food! Everything can be altered to fit whatever image you desire people to see you. The cynical part is the people "seeing" you are your closest friends and family, who need not be impressed by such trivial things. The question of who are we impressing lies unbeknown.

Here's my reflection on all of this. Beauty is comforting. We love beauty. Not only in the physical aspect of someone but in things too. A study conducted in the 90's by two Japanese men showed that people prefer between two ATM machine, the one that is more beautiful than the other (meaning it had decor). So maybe it is the divine truth that beauty and perfection is what we love.

Truthfully however, we humans are not all beautiful. We are not perfect. We are a mosaic of our best and worst traits. We cannot be defined in a binary to say that we are good or we are bad. Just like that, beauty is that way too. When we see other people online, it's easy to say "wow, they have such a great life, my life sucks". Especially when dealing with people who put a front online on perfection. But if you dig a little deeper or think a little clearer you would understand and know that not all you see is the truth. We don't see behind the scenes of a graduate with a diploma on their hands flashing the most perfect smile.

We don't see their tears, hard work and days of feeling like giving up. Days ending and feeling it'll never begin again.We don't see that and that is something we have to consciously tell ourselves in a world of such narcissism and obsession towards perfection. We have to tell ourselves that what we see online is a binary, and their lives are a mosaic. 

Nur Amalina Yahaya