Be careful how much time you spend on electronic devices the first hour of your day.
βYouβre setting your dopamine level; what you input into the system in that hour is going to dictate the rest of your day,β says Rashida Jones, who stars in one of the Season Seven episodes of βBlack Mirror.β In it, she plays a woman who gets a second shot at lifeΒ β but one that comes with a price tag.
In an Season 7 episode of "Black Mirror," Rashida Jones plays a teacher who spouts commercials to her class.
Tracee Ellis Ross plays the corporate representative who can give her those second chances, but only if Jones agrees to the companyβs demands.
That control factor, Ross says, is why she takes social media off her phone on a regular basis β βjust to break the habit. When I start waking up and scrolling, Iβm like, βThis is problematic,ββ she says. βItβs one thing to check your voice, text and email. Itβs another to go on to swipe.β
Tracee Ellis Ross plays a sales representative for a company that offers life-saving opportunities in exchange for messaging in an episode of "Black Mirror."Β
The speed of electronic devices β like cellphones β can prompt unnecessary purchases, Jones says. βItβs the ease of being alive right now.β
When Jonesβ character is rolled into an emergency room, her husband is given the option of signing up for βRivermind,β a high-tech system that will keep her alive. In exchange, she becomes a living commercial for any number of goods and services. Since sheβs an elementary school teacher, that βproduct placementβ becomes a sticking point for her students.
In one scene, they hear her extol the virtues of a product and donβt know what sheβs trying to teach them. For Jones, βthe tone has to be close enough where theyβre like, βOh, what sheβs saying is something we should be learning right nowβ and not just having a full-blown panic attack. My regular dialect and my ad dialogue had to be related enough to each other so that kids wouldnβt detect it.β
Even though those child actors knew she was playing a role, βkids are such truth tellers,β Jones says. βThey canβt lie.β
Rashida Jones includes commercial messages to her students in a season 7 episode of "Black Mirror."
The land of half-truths is where Rossβs company makes its biggest moves. Each time she sells clients on an aspect of her business sheβs leaving out what else could be involved.
For Ross, the episode reminded her of ones in the first season of βBlack Mirror.β Ones that are eerily close to home are particularly surprising because βyouβre so invested in the people.β Had her character just been a salesperson she might have been seen as a villain. Because sheβs also a client, she has βa sense of connection and a reality β¦ like an intimacy to what sheβs talking about and knowing.β
Both Jones and Ross say they might not mind having a βsettingβ on their life dials, if it could remove things like fear and anxiety and replace them with serenity. But the issues βBlack Mirrorβ raises makes them cautious about electronic advances. The ability to watch a TV show and scroll at the same time may be intriguing but βsecond screen watchingβ could be too much, Ross says.
βIβm not a person who leaves the TV on,β Ross says. βMy life has so much talking and noise-noise that I (embrace) the silence. Trees and birds make great music. Itβs totally good for your nervous system.β
Message received.Β
βBlack Mirrorβ is now streaming on Netflix.
