PMA Proposal 1: “Fifteen Million Merits”

For my first PMA assignment, I’d like to analyze an episode from the popular anthology series, Black Mirror, specifically the 2nd episode, Fifteen Million Merits. Black Mirror is an anthology series about theoretical situations having to do with technology in the near future, and many of these episodes pose questions or presents a specific view about how far technology can and should go and the effects of said technology on the human psyche. This episode presents an exaggerated setting where all “normal” people are seen as numbers that endlessly consume content and are forced to be advertised to whilst riding these bikes to earn merits in order to buy upgrades and other sorts of things to make their life better. This episode provides satirical views on mass capitalism/advertising as well as providing commentary on social class.One of the main things the episode argues is that most consumers are complacent and will just allow companies to feed them any content or advertise anything to them just enough to please them and make them come back for more.