Black Mirror: “Fifteen Million Merits”
“15 Million Merits” it’s the second episode of the British Netflix series, Black Mirror. This episode is strongly related to digital culture because it shows a world full of screens and apps, where everyone seems to live in a video game and has it own avatar. Some elements of the world that is shown in this episode don’t seem to be so far from our world now, such as the relationship that people has with the technology. One of the things I can say about the episode is that it’s scary to see how attached is people to the technology and how far they are from interacting with other persons. “15 Million Merits” reflects the distance between the people and how hard is to have any kind of relationship in a world full of technology that has the power to consume us.
I think that the notion of participatory culture as defined by Jenkins is not shown in the episode because the people that live in that world do not participate or contribute in any of the decisions of their life. They are given a bicycle and the rules of theirs life is already mandated and they don’t have the power to change it by participating. As "Bing" said in the episode, they can’t change the clothes or anything that they buy even if they don’t like it, they have to stand by what is sold to them.
One of the elements that are similar to our reality (American Idol) is the talent show, Hot Shots were Abi and "Bing" has to contest, while looking for a better life. We can compare the show to what Jenkins says in his book about American Idol where people at the end of it, gets a promotion deal. In this Black Mirror episode if people wants to participate they needs to be in a higher cultural power as the judges of the talent show. The reality show reflects the society in which "Bing" and Abi live, where erotica channels are consumed and people wants to consume entertainment. It also demonstrates how society values sex and makes Abi to be a porn star against her wills.
In addition I can say that one of the parts that is more impressive is "Bing" speech at the talent show when he talk about how unfair is the system and how everything feels unreal and heartless. It made me think about our economic system and how unfair it is for the majority of the people. Furthermore, it reflects how in the digital world is hard to keep things real because as we read in The Language of New Media of Manovich what we are seeing in all that screens is just a representation of reality.
After all, I can say that I really liked this episode of Black Mirror and it made me question a lot of things of how we are living now with the new media. One of the biggest reflections that “15 Million Merits” made me do was our relationship with technology. And how technology and new media changed and still changing the way we relate with other people.
