The Netflix series Black
Mirrors has a different story line, characters for each episode, making
them all different, however, it does seem to be that in each episode there is a
problem or issue and those problems seem to come from an issue around technology.
In this specific episode people have a something in their head that allows them
to record everything they see and hear, so the human brain doesn’t have to remember
it themselves. The characters are able to replay any memory from any point of
their life with a click of button, they can also project it on a screen for
others to experience. The “grain” is a part of their everyday life it is even
used for airport security, and those who do not have one are considered
outsiders, and are often questioned why they wouldn’t have it.
Having this
grain inside of you is very frightening to me because it records every little
detail of your life. Snapchat is one form of social media that seems similar to
the grain because we are able to record and take photos of exactly what we’re
doing in a specific moment, and replay it until it eventually disappears. Because
with Snapchat we are able to record and talk to others, it causes many issues
with relationships, and many might blame social media for destroying
relationships. The episode involves, Liam the main character who suspects his
wife might be cheating on him, after the two attend a dinner party. Liam is
able to go back time and time again to re watch everything that happened and
hear the conversations his wife had with other men. Because of the grain and
the “redo” Liam is able to discover that his wife in fact had been lying and
was still interested in her ex boyfriend. There was also a situation where the
ex boyfriend had played previous memories for the people at the dinner party to
watch while eating their meal. Because Liam was watching his memories he was
able to go back into his own memories and re watch the videos, which is where
he saw his wife cheating. Throughout the entire episode it is clear that his
marriage is falling apart and he gets so obsessed with watching his memories
and finding out every detail. In the end Liam is left alone and upset which
resulted in him removing the grain himself from his head.
This concept
of the grain is so interesting to me because I was thinking about the society
we live in today and what the world would look like if everyone had one. The
only positive I can see with this technology would be situations like airport security
or trying to track down a criminal, being able to watch their memories and see
what they have been up to lately. However, I was thinking how different the
world would be, and the things we would be able to see. People would have
movies stored, tv shows, etc. I was also thinking how this would work with
kids/young adults who are in school. For example taking a test, we would have the
ability to back to our memories and re read something, it almost seems like
education would not be viewed the way it is viewed today because people can
just store all their memories and information in the grain.
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