How Bing's Speech in "Fifteen Million Merits" Reflects Our Media
In Fifteen Million Merits, Bing criticizes society and the media - he points out that because of our technology, people no longer have the capacity to take in real, raw talent and personality. Instead of appreciating something genuine, society and the media are fixated on how marketable someone is instead of their actual potential. Our media gains viewers because people making fools of themselves on live television is hilarious to us. We're consumed by our social media profiles and online image. I agree with Bing's point of view - this episode of Black Mirror is relatable to our society today because our media also lacks authenticity.
One of Bing's important points is, "The faker the fodder is, the more you love it, because fake fodder's the only thing that works anymore." This is relatable to us because our media is completely obsessed with insignificant things - most of our news outlets are filled with which celebrity wore what and when, and who's involved with who - these are the only things many people care about now, instead of actual things that are happening in our world that will affect us, like climate change. Take the Kardashians, for example - they dominate a lot of our media. All of the articles involving them are about their supposed personal lives, and the extremely minor things that happen to them. They aren't famous for any real reason, except for the drama they create. I've included just one of these articles below - it's sad that this is something people actually care about.
"Fake fodder is all we can stomach - actually not quite all. Real pain, real viciousness, that we can take." This quote is highly relatable to our society - our media lives to ridicule other people. We have a lot of shows that are identical to "Hot Shot" in this episode, and are similarly dedicated to making entertainment out of people. Our media relishes in mocking people, and we as humans enjoy watching people failing publicly and being ridiculed. The audience feed off of the contestants' embarrassment.
TV shows like The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent pre-approve contestants to audition not based on their talent, but mainly based on how entertaining they would be to the audience. The 'bad' auditions and 'untalented' people are chosen on purpose so they can inevitably make fools of themselves on stage.
Below, I've included contestant Sophie Stokle's audition that went badly because of her inability to sing. She took the judge's words okay, but there are many horrible comments on her personal YouTube channel of people's criticism - this is an example of people enjoying other people's failures. Stokle was put on that stage to be made fun of. Yes, she couldn't sing, but that doesn't warrant insults and mean jokes instead of constructive criticism.
"All we know is fake fodder and buying shit. That's how we speak to each other, how we express ourselves is buying shit. I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new hat for our doppel, a hat that doesn't exist. It's not even there, we buy shit that's not even there."
The 'doppels' in Fifteen Million Merits are comparable to our social media profiles. Characters in this episode live to update their doppels and create a digital representation of themselves that others will like, in the same way that we're obsessed with our digital profiles. We share only the parts of ourselves we want others to see, omitting all flaws and truth from our online image. We want so badly to be liked and approved of by other people that we spend hours perfecting our next post. We're terrified of exposing our real identities and personality in fear of what others will think, and because of this no one on the internet is 'authentic'. The VICE article below illustrates this very well.
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