The Planned Obsolescence of “Nosedive”

“Nosedive” addresses a number of social concerns that have arisen over the ubiquitous use of the social media alongside a recognition of the growth of audit culture and the way new forms of classificatory systems are emerging because of it. The episode draws attention to aspects of the quantified self, big data discourse, the simulacra involved in modern identity construction, the processes of self-presentation and impression management that goes into making and possessing the self, and the bio-political forms of surveillance that are countenanced in and through these new forms of augmentation. “Nosedive” also shows how the gendered body is particularly caught up in this regime of docility and passivity. Finally, the episode offers us a way of resisting and rejecting these status cultures—a message sketched out in the final scene’s language play, and the let loose forces of Lacie’s unruly or wayward body. In this chapter, I explore the key themes found in the episode, concluding with a discussion of the idea of planned obsolescence, the message which I will suggest “Nosedive” is operating from.