Black Mirror Episode 2

The second episode of Black Mirrors introduced us to the topic of Advertisement and how involved it can be in our lives. In this episode, our main character lives in a world of monotony in which his one and only work is to pedal on a bike in order to get points to then be able to buy everything they want. It could be defined as the currency in that world. The days consists of doing the same thing over and over; never seeing the natural light. Our main character, and the rest of the characters in the episode, are commonly bothered with different advertisements, mostly porn or a talent show, about how they can change their lives and have a better life. Those advertisements also try to convince people to watch those TV shows so they can get more viewers. In order to delete the advertisements a fine has to be paid. Our character meets a girl who is a great singer and falls in love with her. After convincing her and paying for her ticket to participate in the talent show, he sees how she is convinced to end up on the porn channel and is taken away from him. With hard work and consistency, he gets a chance to now participate in the talent show and let everyone know how he feels abut this advertisement world and fake lives they are selling them on TV. Finally, he gets offered a job in that world that he accepts it, making him one of them.

This episode of Black Mirror brings an interesting statement to the table of how the real world works and how it can end up being in the future. Media is nowadays presented in every single moment of our lives, and advertisement is one of the big things that media is exposing us to in a daily basis.

Media has changed our lives drastically in the last decades. We are now way more attuned to everything that is happening in the world, we can access things quicker, buy things easier... But, we are also giving up a big amount of our privacy that can be used at any point against us. This episode was a way to open my eyes in terms of how advertisement can be able to control our lives to the extreme. We can already find adds personalized to our interests every time we access the internet. What now only appears while we are in the network, can easily appear in the future while we are walking on the street, or any time we are outside, which could have a totally bigger and different impact on us and make us act different towards the world of advertisement. What nowadays is helpful for us to find the things we like, can easily end up being a nightmare for a lot of people in the near future. The world is constantly changing and not every change is good.