Black Mirror’s ubiquitous “techno paranoia” has caused a wave of debates among us, with the majority believing it’s very thought-provoking and relevant to an extent, yet rather futuristic and not really bound to happen any time soon. Well, what if it turns out that Black Mirror is much closer than we think? Only three years away to be precise.
‘Nosedive’, the opening episode of season 3, depicts a pastel coloured hell of a world, where everyone seems just so “happy”. Citizens wear contact lenses, which show them information and a social rating of every person they lay their eyes on. People’s lives revolve around an app that is a bit like Instagram, Facebook, Skype and Uber in one. Everyone rates each other’s posts on the scale of one to five and on top of that they assess every single interaction they have with each other. Which means that in order to get a good overall rating one needs to always think and do what others expect from them.
People in this world practice smiling and crying, and anxiously wait to be “starred back” after each interaction (rather futuristic, but sounds a bit familiar, huh?). One gets rated while getting married and even rates their newly-wed husband while he’s giving his speech on how much he loves them. If your rating falls below a certain level you might not be allowed into work; on the other hand, if your rating is prestigious enough, you’re allowed a higher standard of living: better cars, plane tickets, discounts and even … a hospital bed when facing a life-threatening disease. How nice of them! The majority of people have stopped having meaningful conversations and “play the numbers game” till they climb the ladder as high as they want and they “can breathe again”. Unfortunately, this day will never come for people who only care about their social status. The episode finishes with the lead actress experiencing a nervous breakdown, being arrested and losing her privilege of using the contact lenses and the app. Only then can she actually “breathe again”.
‘Nosedive’ doesn’t only portray the damaging effects of social media, it also depicts what happens to human beings when all they care about is their image and pleasing others.
On a less futuristic note, China has started implementing its Social Credit System (SCS) with the help of a few of big data magnates, which the government is planning to put into practice by 2020. Some of the programmes are being developed by Tencent (smartphone, internet, payment system and media provider), China Rapid Finance, the developer of WeChat (mix between Whatsapp and Facebook used by over 850 million people) and Ant Financial Services Group, AliPay’s owner (payment system used to purchase goods and services, pay rent, etc.) and Alibaba’s affiliate (Chinese version of Amazon and eBay and world’s biggest online shopping platform); both of these companies hold a scarily large amount of data on their users. The latter has also joined efforts with Baihe, the most commonly used online matchmaking portal in the PRC, and Didi Chuxing (Chinese competitor of Uber).
Initially, the companies seemed quite reluctant to disclose too much detail to foreign media, due to concerns that the government might not grant them a permanent license if they did so (BBC). We now know what criteria some of the companies are planning on using – credit history, fulfilment capacity, verification of personal information, security, wealth, compliance, as well as interpersonal relationships, behaviour and preference. The first six are acceptable, however the last three seem like a slight invasion of privacy. According to the developers, they will be measuring consumers’ trustworthiness depending on their buying habits; for example, parents purchasing baby products would be more trustworthy than someone who buys a lot of computer games or alcohol. Who their online friends are and what sort of interactions they engage in as well as sharing a “positive energy” (Sesame Credit) online, which we could probably assume means “sharing positive opinions about the government”. The system not only assesses people’s behaviours and friendships, but also encourages and alerts them for the sake of a higher score.
The programme is supposed to be used to not only assess citizens’ credit score, i.e. the better your rating the higher loan you are allowed to take. Higher rating also allows such incentives as fast-tracked visa applications, high broadband speed, better education for your children, foreign travel allowance (or lack thereof, if your rating is too low), access to certain restaurants and clubs, etc. We can only suspect how badly this will play out in the long run: with people whistleblowing their own friends and changing each of their behaviours in order to be ranked well and have access to a better lifestyle. Just like in ‘Nosedive’ there will be advisors instructing you on how to improve your rating and what part of your life, personality, and friendships you have to change in order to do so.
Chinese government claims that SCS is being developed as there is a high “trust deficit” in China and a number of people such as students are not included in their current credit system. These reasons do make a lot of sense and seem notable. However, in a country where the government’s blacklist is probably longer than the world’s history, where citizens are denied freedom of speech and the government hires a number of people to write about 488 million positive online posts about the government yearly, does anybody really believe that the system is supposed to repair the “trust deficit”?
- “Black Mirror – A new drama from Charlie Brooker”. Endemol UK. 11 May 2011. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-34592186