When Rating People Becomes Taboo

In Netflix's popular series Black Mirror, there's an episode called "Nosedive". ( for those who are unfamiliar, Black Mirror is a dystopian science fiction series with satirical themes that explores the dark side of modern technology, and the unexpected consequences to humans. Basically, it's a series where technology runs amok). This episode is is set in a world where people can rate each other from one to five stars for every little interaction they have through a people-rating app, kind of like a "Yelp for People" (think of it as a personal reputation score, or a bar-o-meter to measure a person's "coolness"). Every rating affects a person’s overall standing - the higher your rating, the more perks you get; the lower your rating, the harder you have to work to keep yourself afloat. Essentially, get a 5.0 and be placed on the A-list; get a 1.0 and be doomed on the shit-list.

Living in this dystopia is the main character Lacie, a young woman obsessed with increasing her ratings ( from a 4.2 to near-5.0). After all, it's her ticket to better opportunities in life, like moving into a more luxurious residence and rubbing elbows with 'important' people at her friend's prestigious wedding. Lacie's relentless effort to score higher rating leads to skillful sucking up to 'uppity' people, faking kindness, and acting superficially all for the sake of receiving validation from pretty much anyone she comes across.

Sounds pretty obnoxious right? But wait, I have an idea. Let's add an even MORE vile element to this scenario. In fact, let's make it downright taboo. Imagine there's an app that further breaks down the rating into these sub-categories, each with a scale of 1-to-5:

Brains
Looks
Wealth
Humor
Narcissism
Popularity
Morals
Vanity
Work Ethic
Sexual Performance (yikes!!)

(I told you this would be taboo)

Ok, so there's tons more categories that I can come up with, but let's start with these 10. Imagine living in a society where this sort of rating system runs rampant. Essentially, anyone can rate anyone else on these categories however they wish - fairly or unfairly, kindly or maliciously, accurately or completely biased. ( this concept is a reminiscence of the 2014 Lulu app; the infamous guy-rating app that allowed girls to anonymously vet a guy's romantic capabilities behind their backs and without their consent (!!). But in our scenario, everyone is subjected to being rated). How would this grossly-objectifying scoring system affect your life?

For one thing, an app like this is bound to be used as a simple vendetta tool - a platform that breeds judgement, slander, retribution, and mischaracterization of all sorts ( oh, the horror!). Reducing humans to a number that measures "coolness", or "desirability" or whatever shallow construct that exists in society isn't just degrading, but it could cloud others' perception of you in dating, social relationships, career front, and practically every domain in your life. I mean, imagine people mercilessly passing judgements like "Gasp - Bob scored 1.3 in sexual performance? He probably can't get it up!" or "Look! Jane got 4.5 on narcissism. She must be a bitch!" or "Tom scored only 2.0 on work ethic? Well, I ain't hiring him". ( Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if something like this already exists!)

Another unintended consequence? It could bring out the worst in humanity. Those who are bitter about their less-than-stellar scores would deliberately become dicks as an 'act of defiance' against anyone who judges them unfairly. Decent, pleasant people would turn into dicks. Those who are already dicks would become even bigger dicks (no pun intended). In fact, it could stir up a lot of bad blood between people and make the world a really spiteful, angry, and grudgy place.

So imagine yourself in this hypothetical scenario. Would you relentlessly appease to everyone just to improve your reputation score, like Lacie's character? Or would you scoff at this idea entirely and think "Screw it, I ain't letting some stupid app change who I am. Fuck everyone, I'm just gonna be myself!" Or better yet, would you become a badder, douchey-er version of yourself just to piss off anyone who buys into this human bar-o-meter?

Another imaginative exercise in a hypothetical world