4) Technology: Bandersnatch and Interactive Media

Image result for bandersnatch
In December 2018, Netflix released a new film in the Black Mirror universes called Bandersnatch. The film is an attempt at interactive viewing, taking a "Choose your own adventure" approach to it's storytelling, giving viewers the option to influence the story as they go along, being presented a number of choices which lead them down a certain path in the story. 

 What makes this interesting isn't totally the technology used to allow people to influence the story in real time (Netflix has implemented this in a number of children's programming), but the story both thematically looks at the potential dangers of this up and coming technology, in a way only Black Mirror can, but highlights some possibilities about how to forward entertainment media as a whole.
Image result for bandersnatch netflix endingWhen referring to Bandersnatch, I always ask my friends "Have you played Bandersnatch yet?" Not just to allude to the in-universe videogame the main character obsesses over, but because you don't really "watch" Bandersnatch. You play it. After every "ending" the "player" (viewer) is given a score about how they did ranging from 0-5 Stars. 

 In this, if you've seen all the endings, you get a feel as to what the more "positive" (if that word could be used in reference to Black Mirror) endings are to the more negative. 

 The film also brings to question what the point of something so interactive would even do a player, and makes a commentary on the viewer themselves. How we give videogame characters the illusion of choice ultimately to, what, give us the illusion of choice? It highlights some of the dangers "full immersion" can cause a viewer and at what point does it not become a sick game of choosing between bad and worse. 

 Image result for ready player oneAt the pace technology is going today, and the uses of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Interactive Story Telling, Video Games, and traditional Film and Television, soon an amalgamation of all these things will introduce something that, while extremely cool sounding, could be troublesome if not unchecked. I'm not one  to scream "Terminator!" just yet, but just looking at technological advances in the last 10 years, it's not beyond belief that Ready Player One style virtual reality, true full immersion, is inching its way closer and closer to our reality. 

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