Holy Sheet! A SCRIPTED Twilight Zone? (Black Mirror)

[MJ DeMarco]

From Black Mirror, Episode 2...

Got caught watching this the other night and I found it to have many poignant SCRIPTED messages... about freedom, about being a drone, about our dependency on a system and the screens that run the system.

Is this a fair representation of the SCRIPT in the future?

Is our 9-5 cubicle mundanity any different than the bike?

Entire Episode is here: (Worth watching, it's kinda creepy)

When the main character finally has enough (but still cannot escape.)

The entire episode is RIFE with SCRIPTED metaphors and parallels about real life...

Here's an analysis of the episode itself...

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

surprised to see you watch tv MJ!

TV is dependent on what I got going on. When in Chuma mode, the TV cannot compete and can stay off for weeks to months.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Could this be the future of television?

I think so...

My favorite books when I was a teenager were those "you decide" books ...

You read a story and come across a choice...

Go to page 235 to go take the shortcut through the woods,
or
Go to page 103 to continue forward on the path...

Interactive TV lets viewers decide.

Netflix to add choose-your-own-ending option to shows like ‘Black Mirror’

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My favourite Black Mirror episode.

I've only seen 3 episodes but they do a damn good job at deconstructing how technology could potentially be disruptive to humanity.

 

[Almantas]

Or they live in a constant state of learned helplessness. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" (applies to women too)

Good point. Here's the catch: most people are desperately dependent upon that rat race and know no better way of living their lives. Some people are so desperately dependent that they try to protect the rat wheel if anyone tries to destroy it... and you know what? If you opened a cage the rat would still stay inside the cage, because of food, water and security.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I tend to be skeptical of technology insofar as its impact on humanity, but man, this series really spikes up the fear.

I could talk about every episode and how we are truly only 1 or 2 steps away from a similar insanity.

 

[Raoul Duke]

 

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[Almantas]

You know what's more creepy? I just finished watching Black Mirrors movie. Literally few minutes ago. And randomly jumped in this thread. That's creepy. Lol.

 

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[Ninjakid]

My friend told me about this show several months ago. This is the first episode she showed me. I was hooked on the show after.

Imagine if everyone could take a step back and see their life in the rat race for what it is...

 

[Ninjakid]

IMO most people see how fuarked up the system is, but they simply ignore it.

Or they live in a constant state of learned helplessness. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" (applies to women too)

 

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[McFirewavesJr]

I tend to be skeptical of technology insofar as its impact on humanity, but man, this series really spikes up the fear.

I could talk about every episode and how we are truly only 1 or 2 steps away from a similar insanity.

The episode where everything is about that social platform that let's you rate people is just too damn close to what's happening now :/

 

[Bekit]

Check this out.

I have a friend who lives in China, and she attempted to post a positive message about how to disinfect to kill coronavirus.

This immediately popped up on her phone (WeChat app):



As a copywriter trained in the creation of persuasive communication, I can't help but observe the following elements of persuasion woven into this message:

1) Very careful word choice.
"Untruthful" vs "lying"
The content of this message is essentially identical to saying, "You're lying." But look how much less inflammatory it is to say it their way. This is accomplished through the use of passive voice ("has been" 2x), highbrow vocabulary ("deemed," "untruthful"), and wordiness (36 words vs 2).

If the message raised your hackles ("You callin' me a liar??? Them's fightin' words!"), then you would become emotionally resistant to the effect of persuasion. But by avoiding this emotional outrage, the persuasion is free to do its invisible work on you.

Notice also the wording that subtly equates the words "rumor" and "untruthful" through the use of the phrase, "checked against anti-rumor announcements." A rumor may or may not be truthful (see Snopes!) but this message implies, "We're against rumors, period. They're all false."

I can see the cartoon strip now...

• Two workers in a daycare are wiping down the toys with Chlorox wipes.
• Character 1: "uh, I heard a rumor that you can disinfect coronavirus with 75% alcohol or chlorine."
• Character 2: "You're sharing a RUMOR with me? You LIAR!"

2) Social Proof (see Robert Cialdini's book Influence)
"Being reported by users"
It's essentially the bandwagon effect or "the majority is right" mentality. If other people are reporting it, then subtly the message is, "they must be right and you must be wrong." This is NEVER intrinsically true, but social proof tends to short-circuit our brains. The herd instinct is very strong.

In terms of short-circuiting the brain, it still works persuasively, even though the facts behind these "user reports" are extremely vague and non-verifiable. (How many users? What percentage of user reports is needed to cross the threshold for someone like me to see a message like this? How do I know if those "users" are legitimate and not just paid to report messages that go against the official agenda? Is it even true that any users reported this?)

3) Appeal to authority
"Anti-rumor announcements from government bodies or official media."
It has been shown in advertising that just having an actor wear a white lab coat increases the persuasiveness of a message, because a doctor is an authority figure. This message invokes not one, but two authority figures.

4) Fear of the unknown (Black Mirror, anyone?)
"If I post this anyway, what will happen to me?"
The answer not given, but the "learn more" link hints that there might be hidden consequences. Just the presence of the popup lets you know that somebody is watching, which creates a little bit of fear that this is going to ding your "score" in society. (Social proof shows back up here!) I can only imagine how carefully the "learn more" message would be crafted to heighten the likelihood that you will abandon your post.

5) A "call to action" that is impossible to perform
"Verify the true situation before forwarding."
This places subtle pressure on you to (A) go and do a bunch of research or (B) if you already know it is true, to go and assemble all your proof.

Either way, they're implying that it's on you to get this post into a condition to be "legitimate."

But even if you did, you would be wasting your time, as there is no way for you to submit your proof to any governing body. (As if someone is going to review your research and say, "Oh, I see it now! OK, you're good.") So it would be an exercise in futility to pursue this "legitimacy" that they're asking for.

This is designed to persuade you to conclude, "Why bother? It's not worth the trouble."

Notice also the wording of the call to action. "Verify the true situation before forwarding." I initially chalked up this strange phrasing to being a weird Chinese translation. But I don't think it's that at all.

Notice that it does NOT say, "Verify if this situation is true." It says, "Verify the true situation." In other words, "there is a true situation, and this is not it." Again, the wording is very carefully chosen to steer you towards self-censoring what you were about to say.

==========
All of this is geared to persuade you of the following: "Don't post this message."

It would be one thing to see this if you were actually posting some kind of fake news.

But considering that they're trying to silence a post that's about helping to alleviate fear of the coronavirus with the knowledge of how to disinfect it, this raises a lot of questions in my head about whether there is an agenda in place to increase public fear and hysteria over this.

 

[Waspy]

My favourite Black Mirror episode.

 

[sparechange]

surprised to see you watch tv MJ!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Bump.

The dystopia featured in Black Mirror is now here...

 

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[Almantas]

My friend told me about this show several months ago. This is the first episode she showed me. I was hooked on the show after.

Imagine if everyone could take a step back and see their life in the rat race for what it is...

IMO most people see how fuarked up the system is, but they simply ignore it.

 

[Coalission]

The entire episode is RIFE with SCRIPTED metaphors and parallels about real life...

The whole series is like that. Wait until you see "Nosedive".

 

[Bekit]

Bump.

The dystopia featured in Black Mirror is now here...

That is horrifying.

"I am finally a normal person" -- after he has gotten his score back through donating money, donating blood, and doing volunteer service -- when he NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG in the first place (I mean, it's stupid to cosign for a loan, but it's not wrong).

He was a normal person all along. But the scoring convinced him he wasn't.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow. Just FN wow. (Both the educational standpoint, and the agenda pushing [or squashing].)

 

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[Bekit]

You're right that I was assuming that the content of the post was indeed truthful, factual, and authentic. I made this assumption based on knowing the character of my friend who attempted to make the original post, and based on the snippet that was visible of what she tried to post. The visible text was, "alcohol. 75% alcohol or chlorine disinfectant can effectively eliminates the coronavirus."

Why call someone a liar when there is no reason to believe there is an intent to mislead?

Fair point. Saying someone is "lying" carries with it the connotation that they have an intent to mislead. This is a less inflammatory version of saying that.

You seemed to have stopped reading after, "Being reported by user," and didn't get to the very next phrase, "AND CHECKED..."

Nobody is saying this is true because it's been reported by a lot of people. They're saying it's true because they've checked.

If you're sending out a WeChat message and you press send, and you immediately get a popup that says, "We've checked, and this message is not factual," to me that doesn't imply that anyone has checked anything, other than that it has passed through some kind of AI filter that flagged it to display this message based on keywords in the message.

Except that the "authority figure" in this instance is likely the more accurate source of information. Appeal to authority is persuasive precisely because the authority is in a position to provide good information. There's no reason to believe the authority in this case is giving bad information. (Unless you know something that we don't.)

When the "authority" is the Chinese government, and when this authority arrested 8 doctors who initially made it known that the virus was spreading, I don't have much confidence that the authority is providing good information.

On the flip side, what would actually be super scary is if they HAVE checked and it IS factual that normal disinfectants don't kill the coronavirus.

If the information being provide really is untruthful, isn't it good that there are consequences for disseminating it? I'm sure you'll point out that that's censorship, and I'll point out that private companies have every right (and in many cases, responsibility) to censor.

Certainly. I just found it extremely odd that a message like this would be flagged for censorship.

This isn't government censorship, or a free speech threat.
Again, reading too much into it.

To me, it seems like precisely that. I'm not sure how this is reading too much into it, but I'm open to hearing how someone could see it a different way.

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea what the message that is being "silenced" actually says or whether it's true or not? You seem to want to believe it's true -- and being censored for some mysterious reason -- but what leads you to that conclusion?

How do you know the rest of the message isn't, "After you mix the alcohol and bleach, drink it."

You may not realize it, but these types of suggestions are making the rounds:

Conspiracy theorists are telling people to drink a dangerous bleach solution to cure or prevent coronavirus

Conspiracy theorists and internet vaccine skeptics are making false claims that a bleach solution called "miracle mineral solution" cures coronavirus.

www.businessinsider.com

Sure. If it was something like, "drink bleach" or "throw your pets out the window," of course I wouldn't have any patience for it.

The reason I thought it was weird was because my friend thought it was weird. There is no reason that I would ever suspect that she would be posting nonsense and getting her hand slapped for it. This is not the only example floating out there of a misinformation campaign. It just happened to be an example from my own personal network.

Providing a warning to users not to forward untruthful information can literally save lives. Unless you have some additional information about what's in that message above that the rest of us don't have, I think it's safe to say that your take on the situation is probably less valid than the warning being provided to the message sender.

I don't know more of the content from the original message that was flagged. For now, I will still hold to my "take" on the situation that (a) it's weird that Wechat is flagging a message about disinfectants as false and (b) There's a lot of elements of persuasion woven into that text.

 

[BeFound Faithful]

Interesting that it explores if there's a way out or not.

In real life now, there is.

One view is a future where no one gets out. Everything's controlled.

How many people watch the episode and say, hmmm, so that's how life might be?

How many will fight tooth and nail not to let it happen to them?

 

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[Dwee]

Reminds me of an old classic. This came out before the internet. Imagine what this speech would be like if it referenced today's technology, news networks, and various other propaganda machines...

Only part I might disagree with in this speech is the part about finding truth from your 'gurus.'

 

[mrarcher]

Not to do with SCRIPTED or anything but their Christmas episode they did a few years ago is brilliant. The general idea is that you have a form of facebook implanted in your head that you can see through your eyes (think AR). You can block people so they cant speak to you and whatnot. It's a really good story.

 

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[VentureVoyager]

Black mirror is genius. Every single episode really makes you think. It's one of few TV shows I can totally recommend to everyone, not only a great entertainment but I believe it also kind of forces people to stop and reflect.

@Almantas what do you mean "I justfinished watching Black Mirrors movie" is there a movie they made?

 

[Kruiser]

I haven't actually seen the show, but it looks really good.

A couple of Sunday's ago, my wife and I drove to a small town outside of our city to hang out for the afternoon. As I was looking for a parking space, my wife commented "wow, everyone is on their phones here." I wasn't paying attention and was just looking for a parking spot so I said "yeah, everyone is always on their phones these days, sweetheart."

She said "No. Look! EVERYONE is on their phones here!"

I came to a stop sign. About a dozen people crossed the street in front of us. Each of them, without exception, was looking down at a phone.

I looked around. The sidewalks were full of dozens, maybe hundreds of people, all looking down at their phones. It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

My first thought was that maybe a commercial or TV show was being filmed. It was Twighlight Zone weird.

Turns out it was a Pokemon Go tournament that happens once a month.

The whole afternoon, we were surrounded by people on their phones playing Pokemon. It was simultaneously amusing and somewhat disturbing.

 

[Tanisha]

From Black Mirror, Episode 2...

Got caught watching this the other night and I found it to have many poignant SCRIPTED messages... about freedom, about being a drone, about our dependency on a system and the screens that run the system.

Is this a fair representation of the SCRIPT in the future?

Is our 9-5 cubicle mundanity any different than the bike?

Entire Episode is here: (Worth watching, it's kinda creepy)

When the main character finally has enough (but still cannot escape.)

The entire episode is RIFE with SCRIPTED metaphors and parallels about real life...

Here's an analysis of the episode itself...

hmmm i actually got hope out of this episode, sure he realized it was stacked against him, so once he got that message he kept up the grind, payed his dues and now he is not totally free he still has to work 2 or 3 times a week representing taxes maintenance etc, but at least he doesnt have to work all the time like he did when he was a debt slave to become free

 

[MTEE1985]

Could this be the future of television?

I think so...

My favorite books when I was a teenager were those "you decide" books ...

You read a story and come across a choice...

Go to page 235 to go take the shortcut through the woods,
or
Go to page 103 to continue forward on the path...

Interactive TV lets viewers decide.

Netflix to add choose-your-own-ending option to shows like ‘Black Mirror’

I’ve been thinking for a year or two that this would eventually happen. I see a market for all ages as well as a great opportunity for Netflix to market it as a family event vs. one person watching a show while the rest of the family does something else.

My best guess says it will be a year or two long fad but who knows...imagine the licensing opportunities for kids to dictate the decisions all their favorite characters make? My 3 1/2 year old would eat that up and admittedly, I would have at least as much fun as him.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

New Black Mirror, and it's interactive! Like one of those old books that let you choose!

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch | Netflix Official Site

 

[MJ DeMarco]

New season coming...

Don't think a television series has done a better job at demonstrating the potential risks of technology from a sociological standpoint.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVik34nWws

 

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[shubham525]

From Black Mirror, Episode 2...

Got caught watching this the other night and I found it to have many poignant SCRIPTED messages... about freedom, about being a drone, about our dependency on a system and the screens that run the system.

Is this a fair representation of the SCRIPT in the future?

Is our 9-5 cubicle mundanity any different than the bike?

Entire Episode is here: (Worth watching, it's kinda creepy)

When the main character finally has enough (but still cannot escape.)

The entire episode is RIFE with SCRIPTED metaphors and parallels about real life...

Here's an analysis of the episode itself...

My Favorite black mirror episode was " Nosedive "