The relationship between individual and society: Behind the “Black mirror”

Eka­te­ri­na A. Uruso­va
Koz­ma Minin Nizh­ny Nov­gorod State Ped­a­gog­i­cal Uni­ver­si­ty (Minin Uni­ver­si­ty)

The rela­tion­ship between indi­vid­ual and soci­ety: Behind the “Black mir­ror”

Abstract. This paper dis­cuss­es how the rela­tion­ship be-tween the indi­vid­ual and soci­ety is shown in the TV series “Black mir­ror”. Based on the ways in which the show presents the role of tech­nol­o­gy and the Inter­net we can observe their pos­si­ble impact and con­se­quences on the indi­vid­ual and soci­ety, as well as on their inter­ac­tion. A per­son, social­iz­ing and assim­i­lat­ing every­day prac­tices of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, life build­ing and con­struc­tion of self-pre­sen­ta­tion, adapts and imple­ments them, seek­ing an inte­gra­tion into social real­i­ty. Such a desire might lead to a break­away from the self and a focus on seek­ing an approval from soci­ety or the Oth­er as a whole. Fol­low­ing the rules adopt­ed in soci­ety and ori­ent­ing to the social sta­tus and approval might be con­sid­ered a reflec­tion of the desire «to have» and the ori­en­ta­tion to a «free­dom from». 

Key­words: per­son­al­i­ty, soci­ety, needs, val­ue ori­en­ta­tions, self-actu­al­iza­tion, social­iza­tion, Black mir­ror

DOI: 10.5840/dspl2019218

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