Narratives

 Black Mirror - Nosedive

    The first thing that popped into my head when seeing that we need to examen narratives is the show black mirror. Partially because this is one of my favorite shows, but it is interesting because it goes over a fictional dystopian society problems and possible projections of somewhat practical ideas that could happen and since each episode covers a different story, I think it is an interesting narrative. One particular episode I liked was that idea that social media determines your lifestyle. It is interesting because everyone is invested in boosting their social status. Meaning with each and every single person you meet this interaction both parties rate each other on this social media platform that everyone has and basically only uses. These rating are then used to determine each individual socioeconomic status. 

    While this is an extreme case of a possible future of social media and like platforms, I think it is interesting to analyze and become aware of it, because in a way this is sort of here in a less extreme case. Everyday people idealize and look up to social media influencer either to be like them or to be correlated to them. Meaning people will shape themselves to become like them, or even mimic everything they do. The problem with this and what the show brings out is that with this everything that is done is basically fake. That every interaction with a person is simply to boost rating to gain a better socioeconomic status, and any small mess up or bad interaction could lead to a nosedive of your status and your life, leaving no room for interpretation. This is somewhat kind of common today with cancel culture. We often see social media influencers canceled meaning they no longer by the majority can be on digital platforms or even in extreme cases seen in public and often regardless of if their proven innocent from accusations or mis interpretations of situations their image is forever tainted and likely will never be someone of great influence or impact. 

    Another thing in this episode that is interesting is it shows how everyone's life is purely on this social media platform there is many close ups and far shots during the show of different places either at work or a restaurant of people all on their phones. We often see this today walking to or from class, inside our dorm rooms or our homes. We have become reliant on staying up to date and relevant digitally that we miss the time we have experiencing life instead of viewing it. Which is why this topic and episode was important to me because it shows how important it is to have digital literacy but to be aware of a broad array of issues related to digital status that we should try to find many solutions to now rather than when it reaches a point where it effects people's lives in a big way such as the sole determining factor for socioeconomic status.

    For myself the way this show in general and even just this episode for me conveys a good message and just simple realizations because they do each have some good writing for it being a short episode which I think helps people understand since its many topics in smaller forms instead of long book or movie. 

    I think if I was to retell the narrative I would do it in a way that directly uses the narrative to show it so probably I would show themes or even this theme of a social media platform effecting people's life in a way that is on these social media platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook to just show in an even shorter way with videos on each of these platforms simple yet deep ideas that make us rethink things we do in our daily lives something that is practical and realistic but out there enough to make a call to action for people wanting to help prevent or solve current and future problems related to these topics.

Source: Black Mirror TV Show

Interstellar

    The reason I chose interstellar is well it's my favorite movie. But I think there is some good ways the story was told which is why I enjoy it. I like how in the movie they show interviews of real people from the dust bowl which they were able to use in the movie to convey the same message and the state of the world during the setting of the movie. Some other interesting aspects of the film was how data was transferred we see that Murphy is being sent messages through time and space that her father Cooper should stay and not go to attempt to save earth. But he sees this as an anomaly something that can just be ignored and she sees it as something that is very important which is a good contrast to their relationship and in the end realizes she was right. Throughout the movie there is stunning visuals and music all relate to the setting and were specifically created for this movie which is why I think it's such as great movie and tells the story well. There are many themes in the movie such as the power of love over practicality. That us humans are very imperfect which causes many conflicts and issues throughout the story. I like the theme that love often drives us at some point in our lives to either shape our live or change its path and the theme that that is kind of the point that it's something powerful we experience and to an extent should be embraced. Some other interesting things we see if that when they go to explore the potential place for earth to relocate problems happen but when they come back the other crew member had aged drastically because he was scared, they would never return because of how much time passed for him relative to them. It just shows that even with all his training and a way to sleep through it and not age he still chose not to because he didn't want to die alone sleeping or even, he just felt lonely. This also adds to the importance of saving time throughout the movie because earth is very fast becoming inhabitable as well as Coopers kids are aging and even same and older age then him. I think this movie tells a story in an interesting way that many can relate to with the current problems on earth, to problems with our family, friends and just relationships in general. I think it shows the importance of time in our lives that emotions drive us to become who we are and what comes with that. It also shows how a different diversity of people views on the right thing to do NASA wants to just restart humanity the plan b, but cooper is driven by his family his desire to see his family again that he ends up pulling off the impossible saving both earth and his family demonstrates how us humans with pure desire often throughout history have defied the odds time and time again. I enjoy how it was shown in a movie form, and I think conveys the message well this is high budget film directing and writing. Maybe in a book form to kind of explain all the important physics and phycological concepts more in depth since it just brushes the surface of each of them.

Source: Interstellar Movie