Arkangel
Black Mirror episodes examine modern society and infer typically dystopian outcomes of technological advances and how individuals in society might react. In this response I will focus on one specific episode: “Arkangel” where a mother chooses an advanced technological program for her daughter. After an incident in the park where the mom thought she lost her daughter, she decided to proceed with the “Arkangel” program that showed the exact location of her daughter. The doctor then continued to show her the other features of the chip like the blurring effect when the daughter’s cortisol levels rise. This then allowed the mother to control what the daughter could and could not see. While the mother is only looking to “protect” her daughter from the dangers of life, the seemingly harmless device created a screened world of security that then shielded her daughter from reality. Overall, the Black Mirror “Arkangel” episode emphasizes the correspondence between the obsession with technology to resolve modern issues such as the natural tendency for mothers to overprotect their children while also targeting society’s fear of monitoring individuals.
Specifically in “Arkangel,” the mom was willing to over-ensure the mental health and physical safety of her baby girl. With the growing surveillance advances in technology, this episode comments on modern society’s need to shelter the innocent from any threats through control. Black Mirror attacks the rapid technological breakthroughs and emphasizes a dystopian scenario of a mother’s reaction and decision...
