Paper Example on Theme of Social Status in Black Mirror

Introduction

Social Status is one's social standing or relative importance concerning other people within a community. It is a combination of several aspects such as wealth, education, lifestyle, and upbringing. The ideal situation is to be among what the society considers as an elite social status. Many people spend all their lives chasing that dream. The reality, however, is that the wealthy grow wealthier thus increase the gap between them and the poor. It has become an endless vicious cycle. This idea is demonstrated in the American society today. Notably, schools in less fortunate areas receive fewer funds compared to those located in rich neighborhoods. This division in socio-economic class plays a huge role in the disparity of children's success due to economic differences.

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Black Mirror, a television series created by Charlie Brooker, examples of a future where one can rate others status based on interactions. Black Mirror is a Science Fiction and Fantasy television series. The science fiction part is evidenced by its focus on current modern technology and possible ways it could be used in the future. The fantasy part is illustrated by its depiction of an alternate present time and a forecast of a dark future using satirical overtones. The show provokes controversial discussions by creating a sense of tension about the current state of the world. It mainly touches on the excessive dependence of humans on modern technology and how that dependence could lead to bad unintended consequences in the future. For instance, in an episode titled "ArkAngel," the show envisions a scenario where parents use technology to get inside their kid's minds to ensure better parenting. Notably, this then quickly leads to domestic tragedies. There is also an episode titled "Hang the DJ" which presents a world where algorithms are used to determine sexual relations. Despite the show focusing on the dark consequences of overdependence on technology, it also portrays the socioeconomic inequalities in the society through its dark illustration of human instinct.

Race/Ethnicity is a major indicator of socioeconomic status in today's world. We cannot tell whether a box of cereal is good or not based on its appearance alone. Similarly, someone's ethnicity should not be solely judged according to history. In a particular instance, in the episode "Nosedive," a co-worker of the main characters, Chester, was locked out of his job due to his social score dropping too low. Coincidentally, Chester is depicted as a middle age African American man. In this episode, the show introduces the audience to a world dependent on social approval. Just like today, one's social rating determines the privileges accorded to them. This episode, however, pushes the limits of the importance of social ratings. While social perceptions are an informal metric today, the episode depicts a situation where technology is used to track, record, and updates one's social rating. As such, this creates a situation where the characters pull fake stunts and appearances to achieve high social ratings. It is a world where genuine experiences, thoughts, and appearances are discouraged. The citizens are required to conform to certain standards for better ratings strictly. Chester, therefore, finds himself in the lower social cadre because of low ratings.

According to William M. Rodgers III, ex U.S. Department of Labor's chief economist, unemployment rates for African Americans are typically double that of Caucasian Americans (Rodgers np). African American men also earn 72 percent of the average earnings of comparable Caucasian men and 85 percent of the earnings of Caucasian women (Rodgers np). Another research showed that "12.4 percent of African-American college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 were unemployed in 2013, which is more than double the rate of unemployment among all college graduates in the same age range" (Jones and Schmitt 1). Throughout the episode, it was more noticeable that most entry-level jobs, barista, cab driver, airport security, car rental worker, confinement guard, are populated by racial minorities. Presumably, this may suggest a gap in wealth between ethnic groups.

Apart from highlighting employment inequalities, nosedive also clearly brings to light the social construct in today's America that is also shared around the world. America is in a period where most of its social interactions are increasing via smartphone gadgets rather than face-to-face. The Episode shows that Lacie's workplace is full of people looking at their screens rather than with each other. Lacie's brother is also a full-time gamer. In a way, the episode paints a grim picture of a future where social media completely dominates human interactions and the bad consequences of such a situation. An average teenager, texts over 3000 times in a month, and this was in the past years (Johnson np). The number is higher today. Besides, communications via smart gadgets are plainly superficial. They lack the deep emotional bond formed during face-to-face interactions (Johnson np). As a result, many people today are unable to form meaningful and lasting relationships either in business, friendship, the family, or romantically.

Wealth is also another key component of socioeconomic status. The UN Special Rapporteur released a report on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Mutuma Ruteere explains that poverty does not result only from an unequal sharing of resources. 'Discrimination against groups and persons based on their ethnicity, race, religion or other characteristics or factors has been known to encourage exclusion and impoverish certain groups of the population who suffer from unequal access to basic needs and services' (Social Watch np). These services may include education, healthcare or even necessity such as food, blanket, etc. For these reasons "African-Americans and Latinos are more likely to attend high-poverty schools than Asian-Americans and Caucasians" (National Center for Education Statistics 26). Many of these groups are thus unable to attend college or drop out leading a majority of them to work in entry-level jobs. With these circumstances, many may not just suffer physically but also mentally from insufficient funds/resources. In a particular instance, the main character, Tracy, was faced with a dilemma. She was in need of a new place but unable to attain it due to low social scores. As such, this led to a physical transformation regarding expression that pointed to more profound mental issues. Accordingly, research shows that depressive symptoms are common among negative/low net worth households (Mossakowski 947).

A disparity in wealth status is also brought about by discrimination in access to finance. Research shows that Ethnic Minority-Owned Businesses (EMBs) get less access to finance compared to similar firms owned by whites (Carter, Mwaura and Ram 49). EMBs experienced higher loan rejection rates from financial institutions such as banks. The reason behind this is not due to other risk factors such as credit ratings, or geographical location. When the other risk factors were controlled, it was still established that enterprises owned by ethnic minorities were more likely to get loan rejections (Carter, Mwaura and Ram 49). Even if they get the loans, the funds will be lesser than those obtained by similar enterprises owned by whites. This is a further indictment on the deep-rooted racial discrimination in America's societies. EMBs thus suffer from financial shortfalls due to this discrimination. It worsens their ability to manage debt and therefore leads to poor credit scores. A slippery slope is introduced where EMBs suffer from fewer finances, poor credit management, lower credit scores, and finally collapse.

Health is also another key indicator of socioeconomic status. Although many aid plans exist today, there's still a big gap in quality depending on financial status. To emphasize this, the show then introduces us to Susan. Susan's husband, Tom, was diagnosed with cancer at a late stage. Even so, she still went out to find a resolution. After discovering possible research for a cure, Tom was still unable to get a spot as his social score was lower than of the other patients. He was left to die. Even though this is a fiction story, it aptly reflects our society today. According to the world's health organization, the poor have "higher than the average child and maternal mortality, higher levels of disease, and limited access to health care and social protection" (Gazella np).

More research shows a more significant impact of race on the access to healthcare services. The Institute of Medicine report reveals that people of racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower quality of healthcare services than their white counterparts in the management of chronic ailments (Egede 667). This is despite the existence of sophisticated technological methods of addressing the diseases. The report also found out that racial minorities experience higher mortality and morbidity rates for both severe and non-severe ailments. It is also noted that out of the 32.3 million uninsured nonelderly people in America, more than 55% of them are comprised of people of color (Artiga, Foutz and Cornachione np).

Many claims that better surroundings and backgrounds are the key to lessen the socioeconomic gap in future generations. Be that as it may, this solution may not be practical because no one controls which race, ethnicity, or background they are born into. It is also impossible to guarantee success if the same type of nurturing is utilized. This is demonstrated by the contrasting lifestyles of Lacie and of her childhood friend, Naomi. Naomi was moved at a young age to a presumably better community. This led to her meeting more people who were located at the top echelons of the social ladder. Because of that, Naomi rose through the rank as the vote of the premiere were worth more. The higher ranking comes with benefits. Naomi's life was depicted as the American dream. On the contrary, Lacie was struggling to earn points. Her scores were even deducted for simple interaction with a co-worker at the wrong time.

Conclusion

Black Mirror is a television show that aims at the young adult population like many television programs. It, however, draws attention towards certain themes and devices which narrows down to its primary audience. First, it captures the attention of the tech-savvy people in the population especially those curious about possible future applications of the modern technology. At the same time, it targets the conservative cynics who are against the over-dependence on technology for the daily living. This show is very appropriate for those who are for and against technology dependence in the population. The main message conveyed to Black Mirror's audience is that there is a future where technology becomes a social yoke rather than a conduit for convenience. While delivering this theme, the show also exploits other aspects of society such as inequality and discrimination. It even shows how technology has been used to entrench a socioeconomic divide in the world.

A good example is given in the episode, "Nosedive" when an African American named Chester loses a job because of falling short of the social perceptions of the time. Of course one has to have good social behaviour to sustain their jobs. In "Nosedive" however, the idea of good social standing is ludicrous. It is dependent on how other people rate each other based on appearances, behaviour, or any other qualitative aspect. As a result, guys like Chester get to stay in the back burners because they don't measure up. This system forced many people to live a life of walking on eggshells as they faked their appearances and emotions to get good ratings...