Throughout the movie we see the characters using networked communications to both purchase and interact with other users. But we also see effects from popup spam and influence from media consumed. We see a majority of these interactions from looking at two characters. Our main character, cycle number 325, and his cycle neighbor, cycle number 324.
We see #325 purchase several items within the first 3 minutes of the movie, we see him purchase tooth paste and music to listen too [1]. Both of these are something that can only take place on a form of internet because the means of purchasing both goods are through gestures towards a mirror. The currency used here as well is digital, we even see 325's balance as well [2] meaning he has a digital profile that is a representation of him. We end up seeing this profile later on after 325 sits at his cycling station [3]. Later on we end up seeing how a user is able to interact with other users within this internet. The interaction we see shows that a user can send items purchased to another user as a gift [4] without needing to friend them beforehand. This implies that you could constantly send someone a gift just to annoy them however it is unlikely that someone would because the profile you have appears to be tied to you. I say this because the system doesn't fail the recognize who is interacting with the system ever, it always figures out who is meaning to interact with it and never has misreads on the profile to use at that given moment. Besides gifts we also see that emoticons can be sent between users [5], it takes the form of a short animation played by the senders avatar. Shortly after the interaction occurs however a popup appears covering 325's entire field of view.
The popup that covers 325's field of view is seen several times before this as well. This is comparable to a popup advertisement on a website in on our internet. However there are two major differences between advertisements on our internet and the ones seen in Fiftenteen Million Merits, you cannot look away from the popups and you have to pay credits to skip the advertisement. We see the second difference earliest in the movie, when 325 tries to dismiss the advertisement his account gets a penalty of 1,000 credits subtracted from his balance when he confirms the dismissal [6]. The other difference is seen later on where if you cannot afford to skip the advertisment and you obstruct your view of the advertisement, it will stop playing and will tell you to resume viewing before continuing the advertisement [7]. The advertisement also locks the door so you cannot leave the room without either skipping the advertisement or watching it to the end. Both of these differences when compared to our internets advertisements are exaggerations or current techniques used to get someone to watch an advertisement. Using YouTube as an example, it has non-skippable advertisements that can play either before, after, or during a video. With the skippable versions having a noticeable skip ad button, press this button does not cause a payment to occur as its up to the advertisers if they want people to be able to skip their ads or not [8].
Moving over to cyclist #324 he is an example of media influencing a persons actions and thought process. At the start we see #324 laughing at a game show that features contestants in yellow blow up suits being messed around with [9]. The yellow blow up suits are the same color and overall shape of the janitorial staff's uniforms that we see throughout the movie. further along we see #324 distain for what he refers to as lemons with him getting upset that a lemon's reflection appears on his screen [10]. Showing that the media #324 consumes has a correlation to the way he treats the lemons. This correlation is strengthened even more later on when we see #324 playing a first person shooter game where the enemies are zombies and they are dressed in the same uniform as the lemons [11]. This stands out however because #324 excessively damages the zombies corpses and the game even rewards this behavior with in game points. This further influences 324's behavior to treat the lemons as a lower class than himself.
[1] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (1:42-1:50 & 2:11-2:12)
[2] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (2:10)
[3] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (3:27)
[4] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (24:51)
[5] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (25:17)
[6] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (2:08)
[7] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (42:21)
[8] YouTube. Brand Awareness, YouTube Advertising, https://www.youtube.com/intl/en_us/ads/how-it-works/set-up-a-campaign/awareness/, Accessed 9/19/2023
[9] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (4:55)
[10] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (6:49)
[11] Black Mirror: Fiftenteen Million Merits (15:18)