Five Times Television Shows Made Us Scared Of The Internet


With the continuous advancements of technology, the online world now offers us a never-ending list of possibilities.

Thanks to that, the internet has become a common theme in various television shows, which often focus on the negative side of the web and how it can be used for bad.

To mark Safer Internet Day, we’ve picked out five times that our favourite television shows made us want to avoid going online. At least for a while.

Channel 4

Black Mirror – Shut up and Dance

Ok so to be fair to the people behind the screens in this episode, they do target people who have done genuinely bad stuff.

Despite that the idea of someone being able to keep their eye on you by hacking into your laptop is a fear that resonates with a lot of people. There’s definitely been an increase in the number of people sticking tape over their laptop’s webcams since Black Mirror came into existence anyway.

Netflix

You

Netflix’s recent hit-series You quickly became one of the platform’s most-watched shows and conversation surrounding it dominated social media for weeks following its release.

Obviously it was a little farfetched in places, though the underlying story of a weird obsessive guy being able to keep tabs on his new love interest through her social media felt uncomfortably possible.

Viacom Media Networks

Catfish

This is a weird one, the way the show is created it puts the scenarios forward to viewers in a much more comedic light than it would be for the people involved.

It offers a stark reminder that this kind of thing does actually happen online and people can be genuinely crushed by this false persona they think they’re falling in love with.

Netflix

13 Reasons Why

This show was groundbreaking for a number of reasons, it featured some amazing acting performances and tackled a lot of issues in a way that no series had really done before.

Cyberbullying plays a sizeable part in the tragic storyline that sees 17-year-old Hannah Baker take her own life. The grisly nature of the show means the impact of online abuse is highlighted more in this than any other fictional series.

Channel 4

Black Mirror – Nosedive

Ok, so this whole list could have been Black Mirror episodes in all honesty, few shows do ‘scary futuristic online things’ better.

Nosedive sees everyone scoring each other in day-to-day life on this freaky little app. The idea is simple, a person does a good deed and someone who witnesses it scores them up, the higher their score the better the perks they can access. Alternatively if a person pulls a social faux pas they’re scored down, resulting in them generally being looked down upon by the rest of society.

This year’s Safer Internet Day message places a particular focus on the safety of young people online. The slogan “Together for a better internet” is a call to action for all stakeholders to join together and play their part in creating a safer online environment.

We’ve teamed up with TikTok the world’s leading short video platform, which has launched the #BetterMeBetterInternet, a global challenge to support the annual initiative.

Users can participate in the #BetterMeBetterInternet challenge within the TikTok app by applying customised stickers designed to encourage the adoption of positive online habits.


“We’re delighted to work with a range of partners, including TikTok, to raise awareness of a safer and better internet on Safer Internet Day 2019. By working “Together for a better internet” on SID, and indeed all year round, we can empower people to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.” Sarah Willoughby, Content and Communications Expert/SID Campaign Coordinator, European Schoolnet.

 

[Featured image: Channel 4 / Netflix]

 

Part of a paid partnership with Tik Tok