Black Mirror, Facebook and memories
In the wake of tonight’s black mirror, which was truly excellent, a number of my friends have been bemoaning the new Facebook timeline and the invasion of privacy it clearly represents. As always any change to the layout, interface or way we interact with facebook sets off a thousand cries of - “Why can’t they just leave it alone, it was fine the way it was”
Change is good! Technology changes, ideas advance- if we always do what we’ve always done then we’ll always get what we’ve always had.
Anyway, this isn’t so much a rant about facebook as it is about privacy- Black Mirror raised some interesting points but I’m not sure how much they relate directly to facebook as they do to the concept of memories. In the end the central character was destroyed by his ability to remember everything, and replay it in excruciating detail - discovering the affair that had gone on, confirming his suspicions in a manner reminiscent of Minority Report. In fact the entire episode had a very strong Philip K Dick-eque theme running through it, where painful memories could be erased at will and where “Not everything that isn’t true is a lie”. The main characters final self destruction would have been avoided had he and his wife at some point sat down and talked- rather than replaying the cold sights and sounds of a memory which lacks the emotional context of the event…
Not really sure where I’m going with this- it was excellent TV and I just want to sit and write an essay on it or something, break it apart and examine the minutiae and symbolism contained within…
I hope teachers make their kids watch, write and most importantly understand some of this- English, IT, Media Studies, heck even general studies I don’t care but there are lessons here to be learned and concepts to be discussed and questions to challenge the core of what society values and where those values logically might lead us.