This week we all had to watch another black mirror episode called “15,000,000 Merits”. I have to admit the part of the episode was super boring but it gradually picked up the intensity as we went on throughout the episode and it became more and more engaging and fun to watch. This one is about a society that is trapped in some sort of area where they basically have to ride a bike all day to earn points so that they can do the simplest things in life like eat, drink, go to the bathroom, or even brush there teeth. Everything they do costs points, and it takes a ton of time to collect a lot. The main character in this episode is Bing Madsen and his brother just recently died, leaving Bing with a total of fifteen million points. Then he meets a girl named Abi and Bing thinks she has an amazing voice and should go on the show called Hot Shot. This is a show where your skills are judged and if they like you then you basically made it and are famous but if they don’t then you go back to basically living a pretty bad life on your bike. She wants to but its fifteen million merits to go on the show and eventually Bing convinces her to do it by saying that the only real thing that he’s ever seen the past couple of years is Abis voice. This is where the intensity of the episode was picking up. After she sang the judges were more interested in her body rather than her voice. They want her to go on this sexual TV show or program that plays for the bikers throughout the day. She actually ends up accepting the fame of doing these gross acts instead of going back to biking and wasting the points.
This causes Bing to rage and work his way back to fifteen million to get on the show. When he gets on the show he threatens to kill himself if the judges don’t listen to what he has to say. He basically exposes the entire system for wha it really is and its all factual. so the judges tell him that the truth is in short supply and they want him to do a tv show twice a week. This is where I was kind of confused. I didn’t by any chance want him to kill himself or anything, but I’m not sure why he said yes that he will do it. At the end it shows the picture above where he found peace.
If I can take one thing away from this episode its that social media in general has taken a grip of individuals in our generation. Everyones so obsessed with getting likes and followers and being the next big thing. I don’t have a problem with getting to the top but I have a problem with how you do it. Do it the right way. Don’t drag others down that helped you get to where you are today. We can do better.
What has been your favorite episode so far?
Weekly news about the election: https://news.ballotpedia.org/2020/09/11/weekly-presidential-news-briefing-september-11-2020/
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 
My favorite episode so far has been this week’s episode. I say this is my favorite episode because I definitely did not expect things to happen like they did. It was a very exciting and thrilling episode. I can admit the episode did start off very slow, but picked up. Every episode we have seen was interesting to me just because it makes you sit there and wonder how far is society from this type of world and also how the world we live in now compares. 15 million merits wins just because they had the American Idol like show Hot Shots very accurate.
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I agree with wanting more in life and getting to the top however how you get there is very important. I feel like people tend to loose their morals and values in order to achieve that but those are the things that keep you grounded and make you happy In the long run In my opinion. Again not everyone does that but it happens. My favorite episode is the social media with the likes. I like it because its self reflective on society and I feel like it is always good to do that in order to be self aware and not let it go unacknowledged.
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This post is very well written! I thought a lot of the points you brought up made sense. Like the point of wanting more in life and remembering, where you came from and how you got to where you are now is very important. I think that people know this at first, but as time goes by with their success, their ideals change. Everyone wants to achieve that goal that defines us and I believe that if your given that chance to achieve it, all those morales you once had go away. Although this wasn’t my favorite episode from this show I thought it really shed light on how success can change a person.
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This post is very well written! I thought a lot of the points you brought up made sense. Like the point of wanting more in life and remembering, where you came from and how you got to where you are now is very important. I think that people know this at first, but as time goes by with there success, their ideals change. Everyone wants to achieve that goal that defines us and I believe that if your given that chance to achieve it, all those morales you once had go away. Although this wasn’t my favorite episode from this show I thought it really shed light on how success can change a person.
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Personally, my favorite episode was the one with social media ratings. Even though we do not acknowledge it this is what society starting to turn to. You made a lot of points and I agree with them. People’s morals have been corrupted and they do not realize it before it’s too late. Society is ever-changing and today’s morals are not viewed as acceptable to the older generations as they have changed so much.
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