Speculative narrative is a genre that takes a jab on how our worlds can possibly become...for better or for worse. Worlds are created, and it greenlights a range of societies that COULD be the future of Earth. Often, these specific types of works are created to mobilize people to do better, be better...be better for the future of society. While in some instances, speculative narrative works can be deemed as foolish and impossible, they always have an underlying message about society. 

In Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler creates a society where climate change has taken a turn for the worse. The past and present is undoubtedly bad in this grim dystopia, but that does stop the main character's attempt to make the future better. The main character, Lauren, deals with the made-up syndrome "hyperempathy". She feels more than everyone else feels: others problems are her problems. Giving her character a characteristic that causes her to be more empathetic for those around her, Butler makes readers feel what everyone else is too scared to speak about. She gives a voice to the unnoticed pains that occur in society that are often overlooked as it keeps society "together". 

In order to live, you have to know. You have know what the world could become by taking in as many pieces of media as you can as it forces you to imagine a world where none of these bad realities can become real life.

In Netflix's popular series Black Mirror, each episode is curated to touch on the dark side of humanity and how it intersects with modern society. One of the most popular episodes comes from season three episode 1. In this speculative narrative, society is run based on the amount of ratings you have. The higher the rating, the more opportunities and items you have. The lesser the rating, the more people are indifferent to you. This episode comments on how “ratings'' and wanting to be liked through a system of likes and hearts can make one forget to live, and simply be fake. In retrospect, directors of this episode wanted to show how society is already run by this system of likes and popularity in a more extreme version. They wanted viewers to recognize that if we continue to live life through the means of likes and prosed photos, we'll all become crazy just like the ending of this episode.