University of California, Los Angeles COMM 108 Black Mirror Paper

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Identity Explained Through Technology in Black Mirror Black Mirror is a dramatic British tv series that explores futuristic scenarios stemming from technological advancement. The Entire History of Y... ou dives into a world where memories can be retrieved and played back as they happened. Marshall McLuhan, a key theorist on technology and identity, cites that the media in and of themselves exert a more compelling influence on man and society than the messages they carry (McLuhan Interview). Furthermore, the plot of The Entire History of You displays clearly McLuhan’s idea that “The medium is the message,” and creates a hyperreality within the life of a couple after the development of a new technology that allows you to play back your memories. The invention of the “memory gauge” changed society in a multitude of ways in terms of identity in this particular episode of Black Mirror. The Film Theory discusses the concept of the gaze, which refers to the field that contains objects, people, and so on, that influence what and how one sees. This episode involves a brand new gaze that doesn’t exist in reality today. The introduction of the memory gauge completely changed the way society functioned. For example when Liam, the main character, is at a job appraisal the people offering him the job pitch him the idea that the memory gauge would assist them in retrieving defendants’ memories in court. Obviously, this would greatly impact how courts functioned and would essentially mean no trial could come to the wrong conclusion. Furthermore, the introduction of a device like the memory gauge would surely change the way people thought of themselves as it would cause them to be [Show More]

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