My main take away from the film entitled “The Entire History of You” was about the cheating portrayed in the film that the enhanced technology revealed to the viewer piece by piece. The deception of our own reality and the naivety of own experiences completely changes our view of the world. There is an entire spectrum of how things in our day to day life can be translated, understood, and reacted. For instance, Liam admits to feeling that something has been amiss in his and Fi’s relationship for a very long time and later on goes to find out that he was right. However, this is very biased. We are witnessing only one small fragment of their relationship. We have very little understanding of their relationship and at first judgement would classify Liam as the protagonist. This is because of the viewpoint in which we are watching the situation unfold. There is very little information given on Fi’s recount of the events that led to their current situation. And in my opinion, that is the danger of the grain. It takes away from the entire viewership of people. Yes, in our everyday lives today we can only know for sure how we feel, what we mean, and our own intentions, but the grain seems to make this an even less of an introspective experience. But it is not even just the grain that makes humans less aware of the events and situations going on around us, we have cell phones. It seems that these technologies are distractions and cause delays and possibly even dangerous. According to the article, “If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy”, there are several hints to the fact that technology is advancing so much, that there is not really even a cap on that advancement. And advancement that is deeply unsettling and burrowing into our own personal lives. There is a moment within the article where it says, “The girlfriend in 1993 who forbade me to rent a dirty video on the grounds that ‘they keep lists of everything’”. This especially run a bell with me. Kashmir Hill of Forbes wrote an article called, “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did”. Basically the article tells the story detailing the datamining tactics Target implemented to offer specific products that the typical pregnant woman would need. It seems whether we’re ready or not, there is an entirely new wave of technology that is going to be sweep the homes of every family that will no longer seem like a novelty, but a necessity with possibly even more invasive consequences than the secret slip of a teenage pregnancy or even an affair.
I agree that the grain in Black Mirror took away from people's life experience rather than enhancing them and was actually more of a danger, a threat. The grain was a threat just as our cell phones are because it distracted people. The grain caused people to be in somewhat of a standstill, always at some point overly focused on reliving and obsessing over the past instead of focusing on creating a better tomorrow.Similarly, today cell phones and social media have people living in the moment rather than for tomorrow. People will make a split second decision to do something ridiculous just to get likes or comments, never thinking about how their choice in the present will affect their future tomorrow. Furthermore, people choose to check their cell phones while driving instead of thinking of the possible consequences of their actions such as possible deathly car accident.
ReplyDeleteNatalie,
ReplyDeleteThe Target example was very fitting for the "If you're not paranoid, you're crazy" points. In my opinion, the fact that technology is advancing is not bad, but how we use it can cross that "bad" line easily. Or at least it (advancing data collecting technology) can make us paranoid, not necessarily because we have something to hide, but because information that is freely given or somehow being collected about us could be used for reasons beyond our control that we do not agree with.
I agree that it sucks that we didn't get to see things from Fi's perspective, and how his actions may have led her to infidelity, and I think that the Grain, in human relationships especially could really affect the way that relationships work. It's the threat that somewhere along the line, anything you say or do could be gone forever or recorded forever. Which in my opinion, it's biggest flaw being the fact that the Grain while enhancing our memories, diminishes our connection with our emotions. It cannot capture the emotions of the moments we watch again. Like when he was going back and remembering his relationship with Fi in the beginning, he watched it and felt sadness, but that moment when recorded was meant to be happy. It's all really hard to just digest how the grain could alter how we react and handle things on an emotional level with enhanced memory.
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