For this week’s research, we are comparing one of Black Mirror’s most famous episode’s, Nosedive, to China’s future with social credit systems. Nosedive sent people into a discussion frenzy when it was released. The episode revolves around a character named Lacie who lives in a dystopian society where all of your personal interactions with others are converted into a digital identity. Each time you encounter a person, you must give them a rating based on your experience with the person. This overall goes into a total score which can eventually determine your socioeconomic status in society. For example, if you have a negative interaction with someone, your score goes down, this makes you less wealthy and you get benefits taken away from you as others move on up. This episode shows the effects of this society on mental health, as Lacie becomes over obsessed with how people view her, and it drives her absolutely crazy. What sent Black Mirror watchers into a frenzy of discussion had a lot to do with the fact that our society already has some signs of this implemented into our daily lives. (3) With the birth of social media we have created an online identity which is often different from our offline identity. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram give people the opportunity to be virtually anyone they want, but when it comes to the Black Mirror episode, there is no escaping who you really are.
In 2014, the Chinese government revealed a plan for a future social credit system with the goal of all businesses receiving a “unified social credit code”,(1) and citizens being assigned an identity number which will be a public record. They are planning on putting this system into place by 2020, and over time companies have been collecting data which is going towards government research. The social credit system will analyze all aspects of human life and create a score that others can judge each other for trustworthiness. There are a lot of different aspects that will go into account. Some examples are, if you are caught jaywalking they have a well developed facial recognition system to mark down whoever does so. If you aren’t courteous to your neighbors such as playing music too loud or being too loud in public. It also tracks how much you shop online, how you are paying your bills, and if you play too many videogames. Each time you do something that the government or others deem as negative go into your single number. This score has the potential to effect your life just like the black mirror episode. It can affect your ability to travel and wont allow you to buy a plane or train ticket. It also can affect whether you can buy certain property, or your ability to get a job that you have worked hard towards. This can also go into where your children go to school. Even dating websites are taking this score into account such as the “Baihe”(1) dating site where people can judge one another on their score.
This is very similar when comparing it to black mirror because as Lacie’s social score went down, she lost her job, her money and her friends. She was forced to downgrade houses, and wasn’t able to get certain cars or food because of it. This parallel is scary similar to the type of system china is trying to put in place. Something that scared people so much is already happening. Although this system isn’t fully developed or put into place there are already many affects of this. For example, a Chinese journalist named Liu Hu(1) wrote a lot about the corruption of government in china. Because he spoke his mind he got arrested and blacklisted by the Chinese government. This means he’s on a “dishonest persons list”. The worst part about it is there’s no formal laws regarding the social credit score, so there was no official police warrant that placed him under this category. This makes people feel even more that their rights could be stripped away just as easily. This idea that makes people feel very unsafe is what has been causing many mental health issues with social media in general over the passed decade.
For example, uber and other applications in western society already offer the option of rating people. We all know what it is like to be a little nicer to the Uber driver so they consider our rating higher. This is the first step to following the Chinese government’s new system. Researchers have estimated that we will go from having a differing online and offline identity to solely having an “onlife”(2) identity. This means that your virtual identity will merge with who you really are creating no in between. Although people in western society think this is impossible, with the direction our government is moving, anything is really possible. In the future social media will be even more all consuming than it is right now.
- Kobie, Nicole. “The Complicated Truth about China’s Social Credit System.” WIRED. WIRED UK, June 7, 2019. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained.
- Botsman, Rachel. “Big Data Meets Big Brother as China Moves to Rate Its Citizens.” WIRED. WIRED UK, January 21, 2019. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chinese-government-social-credit-score-privacy-invasion.
- Brodwin, Erin. “What Psychology Actually Says about the Tragically Social-Media Obsessed Society in ‘Black Mirror’.” Business Insider. Business Insider, October 26, 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/psychology-black-mirror-nosedive-social-media-2016-10.
Site Title 